Sant Cugat Model: Junts wants to prioritise lifelong residents over newcomers in social housing

BarcelonaAccess to housing, First concern of Catalans according to the CEO, is at the centre of the political debate. The left and the right continue to have differences on what to do to lower the price of rent, but all parties seem to agree on one thing: the housing crisis requires that the administrations get their act together and start building public housing after years of immobility. Esquerra and the Comuns made it a condition for investing Salvador Illa, who has committed to enabling 50,000 protected flats in the next five years and announced this Thursday, together with Pedro Sánchez, which will approve on Tuesday a reservation of public land to get to work. In an attempt to find social housing from under the stones, The commons have even approached the Church to propose avenues for collaboration.. On the other side of the hemicycle, Junts is also moving. From Sant Cugat it has launched a new proposal: to reform the Catalan law to require that those who want to opt for social housing have been registered in the municipality for at least ten years. The current regulations establish that the minimum registration period required for applicants cannot exceed three years.

The proposal bears the personal seal of the mayor of Sant Cugat, Josep Maria Vallès, who has personally conveyed it to the former president and leader of Junts Carles Puigdemont. In conversation with the ARA, Vallès explains that the idea is to prevent people who have been living in cities and towns for less time from passing in front of those who have more "roots" and ties. The initiative was born from the reality of Sant Cugat, a municipality with expensive flats, both for rent and for purchase – in October 2024 it reached its historical maximum, €4,476/m², according to Idealista. "Young people who have grown up here have to leave when they want to become independent," laments the mayor. Vallès is not afraid of criticism from those who might accuse him of wanting to prioritise lifelong residents over immigrants. "I'm not worried. I work for the people of the city," he says.

The reform proposed by Junts per Sant Cugat would mean returning to a previous version of the housing law, more restrictive in terms of the register. It must be taken into account that the regulations do not require being registered in a specific municipality to access protection promotions: it only authorises the administration to introduce this requirement with a limit of three years and, in addition, enables the Government to establish a maximum percentage of the total number of homes where it can be required. The mayor of Sant Cugat will present the proposal to raise the minimum age to ten years to qualify for social housing in the municipalist space of the party, which he himself presides.

Against employment

At the same time, Junts is reaching out to owners who are wary of more protectionist regulations for vulnerable groups. It already did so in the negotiation of the omnibus decree which was defeated in the first vote, demanding that the State assume the expenses of vulnerable tenants who stop paying. This time they are once again taking up the battle against employment. According to ACN, the party has registered a bill in Parliament so that communities of owners can ask judges to evict squatters from properties when they "alter coexistence, public order or endanger the security or integrity of the property." The route would go through Parliament itself: the members of the Junts plan to modify the Civil Code and the housing law, in accordance with what was already proposed by the Barcelona Bar Association. It is similar to a proposal that Junts also brought to the plenary session last term, and which the chamber rejected. Also this week the party registered a proposal to increase the allocation of the Generalitat's Housing Plan by up to 400 million more.

Carles Puigdemont's party has been criticised by left-wing Catalan forces for having taken a low profile in key regulations on the right to housing. For example, in the regulation of seasonal rentals at the state level, which was rejected by the PP and Vox. We will have to see what they do with the validation of the decree law that the Government agreed with the Comuns and which sanctions with Fines of up to 900,000 euros for fraud in seasonal rentals and breaches of the rent cap. For now, the spokesperson for Junts in the Parliament, Mònica Sales, has turned up her nose at Isla's announcement on Thursday regarding public land and has reproached him for promising "millions and millions" every week without having a budget. "He seems more like the director of an advertising agency than the president of the Catalans," she criticised.