Evaluation of the Efficiency of the Housing and Utilities Sector and Management of its Investment Framework in Conditions of Authorities Decentralization

Abstract

The paper suggests the methodological approaches to evaluation of the efficiency of the housing and utilities sector‟s (HUS) functional domain for a region (territory, consolidated territorial community) that can be used to make adjusting decisions in the management of the HUS investment framework. The existing slight misbalances of the HUS development efficiency in urban settlements among Ukrainian regions are revealed. The paper proves the fact that the suggested methodological approaches can be used to carry out the comparative evaluation of the functioning efficiency of the housing and utilities sector for certain agglomerations and consolidated territorial communities in order to define main vectors of the investment policy of agglomerations and territorial communities and priority directions of infrastructure development and services range optimization. Based on the АВС analysis, the investment sources of the HUS development are allocated. The ranging of projects and directions for securing the modernization of HUS in urban agglomerations according to the ABC analysis principle is suggested. Based on foreign experience in utility management, the paper generalizes that most countries vastly attract private business to management and investment in certain HUS areas, thus contributing to the release of local budgets‟ investment resources to implement larger projects in the sector. The paper recommends introducing and improving a set of alternative forms of funding successfully used in the countries with the developed economy to attract investment to the development of the HUS areas (including the local territorial projects) and modernization of their infrastructure, namely leasing, corporatization, project funding, forfeiting, debt financing, concessional investment, mixed funding, etc.