Milan, 15 September (LaPresse) – "There are those like me who are always in favour of collaboration between the public and private sectors, regulated in the best possible way and carried out in the most correct manner, and there are those who are perhaps a little less favourable, but the alternatives must be weighed up. Now I hear talk of a national plan, even our Prime Minister has mentioned it. I believe it is necessary and right, but we must realise that a national plan to tackle this problem, to provide housing for young people and young couples, means investing hundreds of billions. That is the scale of it. So, the point is to reach an understanding between large urban areas, countries and the European Community to understand how this can realistically be addressed and to understand who does what'. This was stated by the Mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, speaking at the event “Emergenza Casa. Verso un piano europeo” (Housing Emergency. Towards a European plan) currently taking place at Palazzo Marino, the seat of the City Council. “In Milan,” continued Sala, 'we are launching this extraordinary housing plan, which consists of making areas available to private builders, in a public-private partnership, where the private sector will build, returning to the City Council the guarantee that the rents charged will not only be purely conventional, but also reasonable, i.e. up to €80 per square metre per year. The problem is ultimately one of resources. Take Milan, for example: building around 10,000 flats means investing a couple of billion, and it is unthinkable that we could have these resources available."