摘要：The article is devoted to the problems of housing-and- communal services in the cities of Russia and their development in modern conditions. The research purpose was to give the theoretical justification as well as to develop some methodical recommendations on formation and implementation of the programmes of complex development of housing- and-communal services in the municipal units. The authors systematized the typical properties and specifics of housing-and-communal utilities, the role of the sector in preserving the environment, revealed the factors complicating their development significantly, carried out the analysis of the housing-and-communal sector condition and the sector’s needs for investments. According to the analysis results, the authors prove that modernization and improvement of housing-and-communal sector demands drawing up target programmes of complex development. In article Principles and stages of the development of the programmes of the improvement of the housing-and-communal utilities were offered, the directions, considered to be the most relevant, were pointed out. The authors recognize such consequence of the housing-and-communal utilities modernization as the increase of the utility tariffs and the need of assessment of the availability of housing-and-communal services for consumers. The authors offer the new indicator, namely, the share of the provided subsidies in the total amount of payments for premises and utilities, for the improvement of such assessment. The results of the research can be used by the practicians, forming target municipal development programmes of housing-and-public utilities development within the general strategies of the cities and regions development, aimed at the improvement of the population life quality and at the decrease in the environmental risks.
