In recent months, much has been heard about the PNRR, an acronym that identifies the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the investment programme that Italy, within the European framework and in the context of the economic measures identified as a response to the pandemic economic crisis by Covid 19, is implementing today.

The National Recovery and Resilience Plan

The PNRR is a set of measures structured in six missions, which in turn are divided into components, totalling more than EUR 190 billion of investments at the Italian level, in areas ranging from public administration to justice, but in particular the promotion of digitalisation and ecological transition. It is set in the context of the Next Generation EU (NEU – also known as the Recovery Fund), which is none other than the 750 billion euro plan set up by the European Commission to support the Member States in their post-pandemic recovery. 

Two instruments are part of this plan: the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and the Recovery Assistance Package for Cohesion and European Territories (REACT-EU). The NRP (Recovery and Resilience Plan) is nothing more than the document required by the European Commission from each of the Member States to access the funds of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

There are three strategic axes on which the Next Generation EU is built, namely digital transition and innovation, ecological transition, social inclusion and territorial rebalancing. More specifically, by 2026 and within the three fields of intervention, the Draghi government intends to:

• Accelerate the process of innovation and digitalisation at both public and private levels
• Reduce harmful emissions to prevent and combat territorial disruption
• Favour the development of southern Italy, employment (especially youth) and female entrepreneurship, improve territorial cohesion by countering gender discrimination

Of the six missions, Mission 1, and in particular ‘M1C3 – Tourism and Culture 4.0’, envisages investments amounting to 6.68 billion, earmarked, among other things, for ‘Protection and enhancement of architecture and the rural landscape’.

The NRP and its impact on the construction world

In the context of driving industries, the building and construction sector is historically a driving force for a country’s economy, as it is in Italy. On the other hand, the built heritage constitutes one of the major sources of pollution, together with means of transport and industrial plants: building consumption contributes about one third of the total global greenhouse gas emissions.

Innovation in the world of construction, building and related plant engineering therefore plays a crucial role in achieving the goals set by the NRP, specifically that of reducing harmful emissions.

In the context of the plan’s measures, it is therefore estimated that investment expenditure in the construction and building sector will account for more than 30% of the total resources made available by the PNRR, the highest share, so much so that it can be said that the construction industry will be the beneficiary of all the measures attributable to the six missions of the plan.

The measures made available in the PNRR for the world of construction and building.

Going into detail, the PNRR provides for specific investments in the energy efficiency of buildings. In the first sphere of ‘digitalisation, innovation, competitiveness and culture’, for example, there is provision for the efficiency upgrading of public buildings such as cinemas, theatres and museums; in the second sphere, that of the so-called ‘green revolution and ecological transition’, the energy upgrading of buildings will be the recipient of more than EUR 11 billion, divided between the replacement and upgrading of school buildings, the efficiency upgrading of judicial buildings and finally measures to support civil construction, through instruments such as the 110% ecobonus, the sismabonus, etc.

Significant investments are also planned in the area of education and research: among these are those dedicated to the strengthening of infrastructures for sports and schools, for the construction of student housing, for social inclusion and cohesion, and in general all instruments that aim at urban regeneration, through the construction of new public housing facilities and the redevelopment of existing ones.