Development Trends and Regulation Peculiarities of the Housing and Utility Sector in Terms of the Resource Efficiency

Abstract

The housing and utility sector‟s functioning is directed at maintaining the life and work of the country‟s population under normal conditions as well as providing enterprises and various types of economic activity with water, gas, heat, and electricity resources. Therefore, the housing and utility sector (HUS) remains to be one of the most resource-intensive domains of economic activity. Its unprofitability undermines the attraction of investment to the development of resource-saving technology. In particular, resource losses in the housing and utility sector of Ukraine amount to 50-60%, while the level of their use is 2-3 times lower than the rates of the developed countries worldwide. The paper reveals the unsolved problems in heat supply peculiar to most settlements in Ukraine, leading to the catastrophic condition when the losses from the low energy efficiency of residential buildings are substantial. Main principles and functions of resource efficiency directed at maintenance of balance between social, environmental, and economic components of society‟s life are determined. The interregional asymmetries in the development of the road transport enterprises are evaluated with the calculation of standardized coefficients for the selected indicators in the transport-infrastructural and housingutility frameworks. The need to introduce the resource-saving activities in the HUS is emphasized as the use of the capacity to reduce the cost of water, gas, heat, and electricity will increase the profitability of economic entities, thus improving their investment attractiveness for domestic and foreign investors.