The Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, chaired this Thursday the Sector Conference that brings together the councilors responsible for the matter of the autonomous communities and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, in the course of which the distribution of funds for an amount of 430 million euros has been agreed.
This money comes from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) and is mainly aimed at the rehabilitation of homes, public buildings and urban spaces, as well as the construction of affordable and efficient housing. Thus, the agreement has been adopted unanimously.
It is completed by more than 3,500 million euros, which have already been transferred to the autonomous communities. “We are talking about the fact that with the sum of these millions that we approved this Thursday, we are already in the environment of 4,000 million of the PRTR for this purpose, complemented with other actions, such as the Building Rehabilitation Plan that we have agreed with the city councils, where we have allocated another 600 million euros”, Isabel Rodríguez detailed.
Likewise, the Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda has also specified during her speech to the councilors that “the transfer of the respective amounts will depend on the accreditation that you can make of the different calls for aid, as well as the signing of bilateral agreements”.
The purpose of this Sector Conference is to continue with the implementation of the different investments of the PRTR within the framework of Component 2 “Implementation of the Spanish Urban Agenda: Urban rehabilitation and regeneration plan” in cooperation with the regional administrations.
“These are very important amounts, which are added to other budgetary actions. The Government of Pedro Sánchez increased the last budget of the Popular Party from just 400 million euros to more than 3,400 million euros in the General Budgets of this Ministry. Therefore, a clear commitment from the budgetary point of view and with many other tools available to the autonomous communities”, Isabel Rodríguez stated.
The Secretary of State for Housing and Urban Agenda David Lucas, and the General Secretary of Urban Agenda, Housing and Architecture, Iñaqui Carnicero, also participated in the Sector Conference on behalf of the Ministry. During the meeting, the change of name of the Sector Conference, until now of Housing, Urban Planning and Land, to Housing and Urban Agenda, in accordance with the name of the Ministry, was also approved.
Country agreement
For Minister Isabel Rodríguez, “access to housing is a problem of enormous magnitude that comes from a long time ago and that affects all generations”. “It is a problem for the social majority of this country and I have no doubt that the solution concerns us all: Government of Spain, regional governments, local entities, social agents, economic and financial operators and other organizations and institutions. Solving access to housing in Spain must be a country agreement. Always seeking the meeting, the pact and the dialogue, we have convened this Sector Conference today”, the minister emphasized.
Isabel Rodríguez has also highlighted the importance of collaboration and agreement with the CCAA. “We have a duty to achieve the objectives established in terms of residential rehabilitation and increase the stock of affordable rental housing in the short term. Only in this way will we achieve access to decent and affordable housing. We need you to carry this forward within the framework of your respective competences”, she stated.
Dialogue and collaboration with the CCAA
As the minister recalled, “the scope that these aid programs are achieving is enormous thanks to the good collaboration and cooperation with all the regional administrations”. “As a result of my conviction in the effectiveness of co-governance and in the undoubted effects of institutional loyalty, I offer you the total collaboration of the entire Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda so that we can continue to accelerate and culminate with a resounding success in the implementation of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan”, she highlighted.
Housing, a priority in this legislature
“Without a doubt, housing is a priority for this Government. We come from a legislature, the previous one, in which an important milestone was consolidated, which was to provide ourselves with a basic law that had been delayed for 45 years and that it was a constitutional mandate to have it in place. That Housing Law that changes the paradigm of the old Land Law, which served speculation, to a new law that considers it a right and that, therefore, we have to work on that policy as a service, an essential asset of people for the development of their vital projects”, she concluded.
