The Ministry of Public Works, Transport, and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands has renewed for the second year the subsidy program to combat the depopulation of rural areas included in the Canary Islands Housing Plan 2020-2025.
The Ministry will allocate a new budget of 14,529,696 euros this year, the same amount that was dedicated last year to the first edition of these grants, funds that can be used to subsidize any of the four lines stipulated in the program: the acquisition, construction, or rehabilitation of properties with the aim of increasing the public housing stock for rent in the Canary Island municipalities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants.
This aid is focused on the 58 Canary Island municipalities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants that are included in the Cooperation Agreement signed between the Canary Island Housing Institute and the FECAM, the association in charge of managing this program. With the renewal of this aid program for another year, the Ministry will have invested more than 29 million euros by the end of the Legislature in subsidizing the least populated municipalities of the Archipelago to retain their population and prevent the exodus of inhabitants to the big cities.
This budget has been distributed among all the municipalities according to population criteria, as well as based on the number of applicants registered in the Public Registry of Applicants for Protected Housing in the Canary Islands and a fixed criterion based on inter-municipal solidarity, thus guaranteeing a balanced distribution of the budget fund.
The municipalities that comply with the conditions of the program may apply for the aid from this Monday, and for one month, to subsidize any of the four lines planned: for the acquisition or construction of housing for rent by municipalities or public companies of municipal ownership to be used for social rental; for the rehabilitation of disused properties that are of municipal ownership in order to increase the public stock of social rental, as well as for the rehabilitation or adaptation of privately owned homes in rural areas to the minimum conditions of habitability, energy consumption savings, structural elements and, in short, those works necessary for the proper maintenance of these.
This program seeks to promote the rehabilitation of old houses since the progressive aging of the population, especially in rural areas, also requires specific measures to access housing and promote the elimination of architectural barriers.
With the addendum approved and published on July 15 in the BOC, and which has been agreed with the FECAM, this program of the Housing Plan 2020-2025 is given greater agility when it comes to processing and an Annex II is added in which the applicant municipalities are asked for a financing plan and a forecast of income and expenses of the activity to be carried out.
This program of the Canarian Government is aimed at achieving the objective set in the Housing Plan 2020-2025 itself, which is to retain the population in rural areas and prevent the flight of inhabitants to the large cities of the archipelago. All rural policy must seek to achieve greater territorial integration of rural areas, facilitating a relationship of complementarity between rural and urban areas, and promoting sustainable development in rural areas.
