“More Sustainable Buildings”. Ombudsman highlights structural problems with the programme and recommends fundamental changes

Two years after the deadline for submitting applications to the Support Programme for More Sustainable Buildings (PAE+S 2023), the Ombudsman continues to receive new complaints on the subject.

Marking these two years, a new assessment of the programme’s implementation was sent to the Secretary of State for the Environment. The document is being released at a time when thousands of applications remain to be analysed.

Based on the analysis of hundreds of complaints submitted by applicants, the Ombudsman’s Office continues the systematic monitoring it has been carrying out since the launch of the Programme, reaffirming the need to ensure greater rigour, clarity, simplicity, effectiveness and predictability in the management of this public support. It should be noted that these general requirements should be reinforced here, as this is a programme intended exclusively for private individuals, for use in their own permanent homes.

 PAE+S 2023, financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), was created with the aim of financially supporting interventions that promote rehabilitation, energy efficiency, water efficiency, decarbonisation and the circular economy in the Portuguese housing stock. It operated on a reimbursement basis, requiring beneficiaries to make the investments in advance using their own resources.

The assessment highlights problems with the wording of the call for applications; untimely changes to eligibility requirements; excessive complexity of forms and supporting documentation; deficiencies in the reasoning behind decisions; difficulties in communicating with the responsible services; and extreme delays in the analysis and payment of applications.

All these factors are cause for concern, not least because they contribute to a loss of confidence and demotivate people from participating in future programmes, thereby undermining the essential objectives of this type of support, which is designed to stimulate the economy and correct social inequalities.

In view of this diagnosis, the Ombudsman recommends a structural review of the application procedures, calling for them to be clear, rigorous and legally secure, and also recommends changes to the functioning of the IT platforms used, making them more intuitive, accessible and appropriate to the profile of the recipients.

This new assessment follows other interventions by the Ombudsman on this issue. You can consult the full text:

•    November 2025: Assessment of PAE+S 2023 [in Portuguese only]

•    November 2025: Letter addressed to the Secretary of State for the Environment [in Portuguese only]

•    April 2025:  ‘More Sustainable Buildings’. Ombudsman suggests review of rejected applications [in Portuguese only]

•    November 2022: ‘More Sustainable Buildings’. Ombudsman suggests changes to the support programme [in Portuguese only]