Local self-government: housing and communal services reform and territory improvement tasks

Abstract

The article reveals peculiarities of implementation by local self-government powers in the sphere of housing and communal services, taking into account the latest changes in the federal legislation. As it is known, on the one hand municipalities are forced to finance constantly worn-out communal infrastructure (which often reaches up to 20 % of the total local budget), while tariff regulation in this area does not belong to exclusive competence of the municipality. On the other hand, the sphere of housing and communal services is a type of so-called local monopoly, since residents of municipal territories can not choose a provider of services, and this, objectively, does not encourage municipalities to improve their quality. The article examines the foreign experience of organization of housing and communal services at the level of municipalities, suggests solutions that can be applied at the level of local government in the Russian Federation. The issues related to the organization of accomplishment of the territory of the municipality to fulfill the requirements established by the norms of the Town Planning Code of the Russian Federation are considered separately.