The deputy for Lanzarote and La Graciosa, Marcos Bergaz, reminded the Minister of Housing, Pablo Rodríguez (CC), in this Tuesday's parliamentary commission of the delay affecting projects such as the 136 homes planned for Playa Blanca or the 200 in the second phase of Maneje.
"With everything that's going on, it's unjustifiable that the public housing construction projects planned for Lanzarote are being delayed, Minister." These words summarize the sentiment of the intervention by the Socialist Parliamentary Group's deputy for Lanzarote and La Graciosa, Marcos Bergaz, in the parliamentary commission on Public Works, Housing, and Mobility held this Tuesday. During the session, the Lanzarote deputy questioned the minister, Pablo Rodríguez, about the project to build 136 publicly promoted homes planned for the town of Playa Blanca, **whose tender, announced for last summer, has not yet occurred**, despite the housing crisis the island is suffering and the emergency declared by the Canary Islands Government itself at the beginning of this legislature. Bergaz recalled that "the previous Government, chaired by Ángel Víctor Torres, planned the construction of 400 public homes for Lanzarote within the Canary Islands Housing Plan, agreed upon for the 2020-2025 period, after decades without the housing problem on our island being planned for or addressed." "A consequence of this Plan are the 201 homes being built in the Maneje neighborhood, Arrecife, but also other projects that remain pending, such as the 136 homes with available land in Playa Blanca; the second phase of 200 homes in Maneje; or the 46 planned for Triana street in the capital, on a plot of land ceded by the Cabildo of Lanzarote during the time of president María Dolores Corujo," enumerated the deputy. "It's time to accelerate these investments, because too many families cannot access housing or do so under abusive conditions, as confirmed by press headlines such as: 'Housing has risen four times more than salaries'; 'The price of housing is out of control in Lanzarote'; or '182 families bid for each rental in Arrecife,' which confirm the gravity of the situation," lamented Bergaz. "Therefore, Minister," Bergaz emphasized, "neither the delay in the execution of these projects is understandable, nor is the **reduction of the economic allocation** planned in the Canary Islands budget project for next year, which goes from 18,474,551 euros in 2025 for public housing promotion to 5,508,000 in the draft accounts for 2026." To conclude, the deputy urged Minister Pablo Rodríguez to avoid further delays, accelerate administrative procedures, and increase the economic allocation for housing planned by the Canary Islands Government for Lanzarote during the budget amendment process, "as housing constitutes by far the main concern of Lanzarotean society at this time."