Recovering 400 disused buildings in rural municipalities: the Government's plan to curb depopulation

BarcelonaThe Government is getting down to work on implementing the Statute of Rural Municipalities, a legal framework promoted during the last legislature and approved this summer, which aims to curb depopulation in a large part of the country. This Saturday, President Salvador Illa and four ministers traveled to Món Sant Benet, in Sant Fruitós de Bages, to meet with more than 300 mayors and representatives of county councils and municipal organizations. During this meeting, the Executive announced several measures, most notably a grant program to rehabilitate disused buildings in the country's least populated municipalities. With this measure, the Government plans to rehabilitate 400 homes between now and 2029. The grants, totaling 20 million euros, will be directed towards the rehabilitation of both vacant private homes and abandoned public buildings in the 608 towns included in the Statute. The Catalan government will pay for part of the rehabilitation, and the owners will have to commit to renting the property as affordable housing for 10 years. This measure aims to fulfill the regional housing plan, which stipulates that within 20 years, 1.3% of primary residences must be affordable rentals. The viability of measures like this, however, largely depends on the approval of the budget, and so far, the government has not begun budget negotiations. The ERC and Comuns parties, the governing coalition partners, are pressuring Isla to ensure that, before sitting down to negotiate, he fulfills the agreements on financing and housing. Among the announcements, the creation of a rural housing pool and a new service within the Catalan Land Institute (Incasòl) stands out. This new service will assist municipalities in processing and managing urban planning and collaborate on the rehabilitation of disused buildings.

The meeting and the Statute of rural municipalities

The Statute for Rural Municipalities includes measures aimed at towns, broadly speaking, with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants located in regions with low population density or negative population growth. The law, approved this summer, already includes some tax deductions, for example, for moving one's primary residence to a rural municipality. The Catalan Government has specified that this deduction, as well as a series of tax breaks for young people and families, will be applied to the 2027 income tax return. The announcements were made this morning by President Illa, and the Minister of Economy and Finance, Alícia Romero; and the Minister of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition, Sílvia Paneque. The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food, Òscar Ordeig, and the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, participated in roundtables and discussions with mayors and representatives from various municipalities during the meeting at Món Sant Benet.