Salvador Illa promises 214,000 apartments and extends his hand for the budget

BarcelonaAs he did a year ago, Salvador Illa once again focused his general policy debate on housing. The president of the Generalitat (Catalan government) announced his intention to promote up to 214,000 homes throughout Catalonia by mobilizing land that until now had been pending construction or for which no planning had yet been carried out. Between 40% and 50% should be designated for social housing, while the remainder will be unfunded, according to government sources. This is the main difference with the package Isla announced a year ago, when he promised build 50,000 apartments which should be 100% affordable rentals, and which he himself had agreed upon with ERC and Comuns for his investiture. Despite focusing on housing, Illa also used his speech to reach out to his members regarding the budgets the government claims to be preparing, but which currently lack their support. In this regard, he once again pledged to comply with the investiture agreements, especially with the new financing. "We will make our specific proposal once we have completed the work," Illa stated.

This week's debate will serve to take the pulse of the legislature and assess the pressure from the members on Isla in the face of the budget uncertainty. For now, the president has sought to give them a nod by announcing an increase of up to 3 billion euros in investments in the next financial years and also with a new announcement on housing. When could these apartments be ready and how will they be distributed? The president hasn't set a timetable for their completion, but he has divided them into three groups.

Initially, there are 21,728 homes spread across 25 areas that have approved planning and are awaiting construction work. There's another group of 32,396 homes spread across 57 areas that have approved planning but are not yet ready for construction. In both cases, the government estimates that these nearly 54,000 homes could begin the production phase between 2026 and 2027. The third group consists of 118,562 homes spread across 52 areas that still do not have approved planning, and it is from there that the executive estimates this figure could increase. The density and buildability of these apartments should begin to be built starting in 2028.

Housing allocated to the open market may be rented or purchased, while social housing must be affordable. In general, most of the land the Government plans to mobilize to bring these 200,000 homes to fruition is private, and therefore, its construction will depend on private developers, with whom Isla has promised "collaboration." The Government assures that there is also a public portion, but has not quantified the figure. Nor has it provided a budget to implement this "national agreement," as Isla has presented it. "If we don't resolve access to housing, we put social progress at risk," he warned.

However, he does rely on the decree of urgent measures in housing and urban planning—which the government approved a few months ago and is now being processed in Parliament—to expedite the construction of all these apartments, because there are measures in place to reduce bureaucracy. In addition, the Generalitat (Catalan government) is also offering to take on the entire pre-construction process to speed up construction and ensure that it's not the local councils' responsibility.

The 50,000-apartment plan

In his speech, Illa also reviewed what has been done and what remains to be done with the 50,000 homes he promised a year ago. After issuing a call to local councils to provide available plots of land—Illa has announced a second call for proposals before the end of this year—the president confirmed that they have planned 22,241 from 670 plots. Of these, 14,398 already have a developer. In addition, there are 4,000 Incasòl homes "in production" for this year; 3,000 apartments are being built by local councils, and the Generalitat has purchased 1,800 through preliminary purchase. In total, Illa estimates that half of the 50,000 apartments should be "in production" by next year. The deadline for having them all built was 2030.

"Immigration makes us a better country."

Aside from housing, Illa once again defended the airport expansion and admitted that there is still room for improvement in the commuter rail system. The president also took the opportunity to make another announcement: the creation of eight new public nursing homes and a plan to reduce waiting times for long-term care "by half," in addition to increasing the number of places for medical studies by 50%. The goal is to increase the number of places from the current 1,333 to 2,000, although he did not specify a timeline, but rather that this will be done "progressively with each new academic year." Isla also pledged to reach 4,000 firefighters in the next four years, a 37% increase.

The president took the opportunity to reiterate his "whoever does it, pays" approach to security and rejected "criminalizing the entire migrant community," in a message to the far right. In this sense, he defended immigration as a phenomenon that makes Catalonia "a better country" and asserted that he will not tolerate hate speech: "From a social, human, cultural, and economic point of view, immigration enriches us." The president also responded to the words of PP leaders such as the president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who asserted that Hispanic Americans are not immigrants. "We will not play into the hands of some people's attempts to distinguish between good and bad immigration based on skin color or country of origin," he asserted.

Demands the application of amnesty

Isla began his speech by paying tribute to the exiled Junts deputies Carles Puigdemont and Lluís Puig. "This chamber is missing people: the deputies Carles Puigdemont and Lluís Puig are missing," Illa stated, once again demanding the implementation of the amnesty law. Isla's remarks on Tuesday come just after the Constitutional Court admitted Carles Puigdemont's appeal for protection but refused to lift the arrest warrant immediately.

A few hours after the return of the members who embarked on the Sumud Global Flotilla, Illa announced that the Catalan government will create the Catalunya Casa de Acogida Palestina program, whose objective is to "welcome, care for, and dignify the temporary stays of Palestinians in Catalonia," from students to patients. In addition, the Catalan Cooperation Agency will allocate two million euros next year to increase humanitarian aid in Gaza and promote cooperation projects to rebuild essential services.