"It's not all about building apartments": the brick model pits ERC and Comuns against the Catalan government.

BarcelonaIn his first general policy debate, the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, sought to secure the support of his two parliamentary partners with an announcement that, in fact, had already been made in the investiture agreements: enable 50,000 protected apartments in five years to try to get a handle on the housing problem. With 7,000 of these apartments already in production, the Government now wants to accelerate the process of converting the land into plots for housing development with the help of the private sector. Hence, Isla wanted to repeat the move by announcing, in his second general policy debate, a plan to promote 214,000 public and private apartmentsIt was less successful than last year: the Parliament rejected the proposal that the Socialist group brought to the plenary session, with the abstention of ERC and Comuns. But why did the parliamentary partners of the PSC government distance themselves from that proposal?

The most immediate argument put forward by both groups was that they wanted to issue a "wake-up call" regarding the agreements pending fulfillment. ERC is focusing on one-off financing, pending negotiation in Madrid, while Comuns warns the executive that it has been dragging its feet in housing debt for too many months: neither the commitment to launch the registry of large holders nor the anti-eviction unit has been fulfilled (yet). Nor has the regulation of seasonal rentals or the protection of protected housing, pending an agreement in the Parliamentary committee, materialized yet.

Now, beyond that, both partners are reluctant to the Government's commitment to the brick under a legal framework that leaves 60% of new construction in the hands of the free market. And the CUP, which for the first time joined a pact between ERC and Comuns with the Government The housing decree also warns of the risk of paving the way for a new real estate bubble. It's the same warning issued by the Renters' Union, which accuses the Socialists of "uncritically buying into the misleading mantra" that the housing problem is a lack of supply.

Against "densification"

The first to express these reservations was the ERC spokesperson in the Parliament, Ester Capella, also a former regional minister for Territory, after the first session of the debate. "We need a balanced country, which means territorial balance, not further densification of cities," warned the Republican MP. Despite admitting that new construction is needed, she urged the Government not to neglect renovation and to work to put vacant homes on the market (in Catalonia, one in ten is). The following day Isla announced an agreement with Sareb to manage 13,000 apartments that will become part of the public housing in Catalonia, a measure that ERC had previously promoted, although claiming ownership. However, the State has only ceded usufruct to the Generalitat for four years.

In any case, ERC has not yet received the details of the proposal for the 214,000 apartments and has doubts about its effectiveness and the model it proposes. "How will they guarantee that private companies will build them, if it is left to them?" ask Republican sources, who also warn that "not everything is about building" when it comes to housing policy. Furthermore, they believe that the majority of the apartments promoted by the Generalitat should be for affordable rentals, which is what there is the greatest demand for. "Social rentals are not for the poor," they argue.

Comunes, against the windfall

A similar position is expressed by the Comuns (Communists), who insist that the government should focus on accelerating the 50,000 subsidized apartments included in the investiture agreement. Launching into "increasing the building capacity" opens the door to a new "big hit", they argue, where private housing is located, it's where the biggest profits are made thanks to rising land prices. "We don't need to build any kind of housing, we only need to build social housing for people who can't and won't be able to pay market prices, and we also need to buy," point out sources from Comuns, who in the general policy debate also proposed banning "speculative buying." They also emphasize that the government's territorial housing plan stipulates that, if 15% of the housing stock is to be allocated to social policies in 20 years, 220,000 homes must be built, 32,000 purchased, and 6,000 acquired, but all must be protected. "Immediate" housing, which doesn't depend on the number of years developers wait to build developments at prices that only investors can afford. "We already saw that in 2008," argue sources from the CUP, who lament that the "problem" is that the PSC only wants to build. It's playing into the hands of the private sector," they assert. The anti-capitalists propose going further and transforming Incasol into a "public developer" and exploring ways to classify all residential land in Catalonia as officially protected, in addition to increasing the preemptive and repurchase agreements so that the administration can seize apartments that would otherwise be available.

The government wants to move forward.

However, the government remains determined to push forward with what Isla called a "national agreement" to bring these new homes to fruition. According to sources from Territori, they will begin to activate measures to deploy it in a couple of weeks. "We must continue producing in the coming years. The government will continue with the utmost ambition," defended Territori spokesperson and minister, Silvia Paneque, when asked if the executive branch was self-critical in light of the vote result. The minister added that "it is not acceptable" for the opposition to claim that there is a problem with access to housing in Catalonia and then, she said, turn its back on "economically viable" solutions. The abstention of the members on this point did not go down well within the Socialist ranks, although sources from the parliamentary group clarify that it was difficult to open negotiations to move them, because the president's proposal was "clear."