Building tradespeople distraught by the announcement of new cuts in MaPrimeRénov'

The government's desire to cut the budget for MaPrimeRénov', the main aid for renovation, by an additional 2025 million euros in 768 caught construction workers cold on Tuesday 21 January, already weighed down by a gloomy year.

Despite encouraging signals such as the decline in average interest rates on new property loans and the slowdown in inflation to 1,3% over one year, the difficulties of building tradespeople have worsened in 2024, the Confederation of Building Trades and Small Businesses (Capeb) indicated during a press briefing.

More than 14.700 business failures and 21.200 job losses were recorded in the third quarter, year-on-year.

Activity fell by 3,9% over one year, weighed down by new construction (-8,5%) but also by maintenance and improvement work on buildings (-1%), including improving the energy performance of housing (-0,5%), which has traditionally held up given the need to eradicate thermal sieves.

The last quarter was particularly bad (-6%) while a restart for 2025 remains "uncertain", according to Capeb.

Order books are stabilizing at around 72 days, "but this visibility is not enough to support employment in a context of political uncertainty and the absence of a budget which is fueling a wait-and-see attitude," the employers' union also observes.

Referring to a "medical prescription error" by the government, which is prioritizing the revival of new construction to stem the housing crisis, the president of Capeb Jean-Christophe Repon insisted that France was on a "good trend" of new construction "taking into account the age pyramid" predicted for 2050.

"This political error is inexcusable," he said, referring to a "slow death of craftsmanship."

He also strongly criticised the "volatility of the government" on the renovation aid front, including the main one, MaPrimeRénov'. A government amendment examined this Tuesday in the Senate plans to cancel 534 million euros of payment credits for home improvement.

The budget for MaPrimeRénov' had already been reduced from 4 billion to 2,3 billion in the previous draft budget planned by the Barnier government.

"The government has a purely budgetary vision of the energy renovation budget," deplored Mr. Repon, citing "a strong exasperation among all building tradespeople" and the "feeling that the decisions are always unfavorable to SMEs and VSEs."

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.