Construction politics

Affordable housing is a human right! As a civil engineer, I aspire to ensure that people can live attractively, affordably and ecologically at fair rents. But there is still a long way to go to achieve this goal. Currently, high-income households in major German cities spend around 20% of their income on rent, while households on the poverty line have to spend almost half of their income. At the same time, the construction sector has a persistently high demand for resources and energy, around 38% of global CO2 emissions and a very high volume of waste. It has thus moved away from the Paris Agreement.

As chairman of the committee for housing, urban development, construction and municipalities, I want to embark on the path to an ecological and socially compatible housing and construction policy! We have to create the symbiosis between people, nature and their environment.

Socially acceptable housing construction must be promoted and expanded through regulations. Existing areas must be used efficiently and according to demand. In rural areas, e.g. in the Lausitz region, I would like to promote regional development.

In cities, construction projects are often accompanied by high levels of land sealing, which has a direct negative impact on the microclimate in cities. However, there is immense potential in the built environment to counteract this. The large amount of roof and facade space must be used for greening buildings. This relieves the microclimate and has a positive impact on biodiversity. At the same time, roofs can be used for renewable decentralized energy generation, such as PV or solar thermal. But the construction transition will not be mastered without a building materials transition. We must view and treat buildings as durable goods. To this end, buildings must be designed so that they can be dismantled, life cycle assessments must be carried out, and ecological and regionally available building materials must be used in construction.

In the Bundestag, I am committed to making building a communal task again which does not exclude humans, animals or nature!