Recent reports confirm the Canary Islands, once again, as a community with high levels of poverty and social exclusion. They also show a society in which wealth is concentrated in a small percentage of its population and in which there is little social mobility, that is, in which it is very difficult to improve one's personal or family socioeconomic position. It also points to the significant impact of housing costs on the further impoverishment of the most vulnerable sectors. A reality that needs to be addressed.
The first investigation, The Inequality of Wealth in the Canary Islands, was developed, commissioned by the Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands during the stage of the Progressive Executive, by the Center for Studies of Social Inequality and Governance of the University of La Laguna, which has as its principal investigator the professor of Economic Analysis Gustavo A. Marrero. This study, which covers the years 2016-2019, highlights that the Canary Islands is the community with the greatest inequality in wealth above three others (Madrid, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands) with the great difference with respect to these (which are rich) that the Canary Islands is among the communities with the lowest wealth per household. Another significant fact is that wealth inequality is much greater than income inequality: in the Canary Islands it is double.
Its conclusions highlight that 10% of the households that accumulate the most wealth own around 60% of the wealth of the Canary Islands community. It also states that that 10% that has the most "accumulates between 80 and 85 times more wealth than the 50% that has the least. This same ratio, for the rest of Spain, is approximately between 45 and 50 times".
As can be seen, the Canary Islands suffer from enormous inequality, greater than other nationalities and regions, which researchers attribute to the evolution of the economy in the last four decades. Observing that "an income inequality has been maintained for many years, which in the end has been reflected in wealth inequality. Low social mobility also affects the persistence of wealth inequality, as assets are passed down from generation to generation and it is very difficult to reverse the differences." Concluding that the capacity to save has been mainly for those who had more wealth to begin with. For this reason, Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista has always rejected that the first Decree Law adopted in September 2023 by the Government of the two rights has been to eliminate the Inheritance and Donation Tax that taxes, precisely, the transmission of wealth. There is no doubt who is being favored.
775,000 Canarians at risk of poverty
Another investigation, the XIV Report The State of Poverty. Monitoring the indicators of the EU 2030 Agenda. 2015-2022 was presented last Tuesday in the Parliament of the Canary Islands by EAPN Canarias, a member of the European Network to Fight Poverty. Highlighting that 775,000 people in the Islands are at risk of poverty and social exclusion, applying the Arope rate. This means that the Canary Islands has, with 33.8%, the second highest rate of the communities, only behind Andalusia (37.5%) and seven points above the state average (26.5%). Despite having spent three years, between 2021 and 2023, reducing poverty and exclusion, the Canary Islands is still far from the Spanish average.
65% of the Canarian population says they have difficulty making ends meet, 53% do not have the capacity to face unforeseen expenses and 42% cannot afford a vacation away from home. Highlighting the impact that housing has on impoverishment: it detracts more than a third of the income of the poorest population.
In this regard, the analysis made by the Bank of Spain, an organization hardly suspected of any leftism, in its report The residential housing rental market in Spain: Recent evolution, determinants and effort indicators, draws attention. The entity points out in it that "a high effort associated with housing rental can lead to adverse economic and social effects that justify public intervention". Ensuring that these efforts hinder youth emancipation, as well as the mobility of workers "and lead to situations of both overexertion and restricted consumption, as well as poverty and social exclusion among households with lower incomes".
Ensuring that the Spanish State is the European economy with the highest ratio of households in rental at risk of poverty or social exclusion: "around 45% of the population that resided in rental at market prices was at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the period 2015-2023", he asserts. Requesting the BdE "a regulatory framework that stimulates the supply of residential rental" and the allocation of resources that prioritize "actions on the most vulnerable groups".
Budgets and measures
Several of these studies conclude that the measures adopted against the Covid 19 crisis and the economic paralysis that it entailed, as well as other less cyclical measures aimed at supporting the most vulnerable sectors, such as the Minimum Basic Income or the Canarian Citizen's Income, have avoided higher levels of impoverishment. Without the implementation of these measures, the data would be even more scandalous. This confirms that it is essential to consolidate them as social rights, as we have been defending in NC-bc.
And the commitments must be seen, clearly, in the budgets. What has the current CC-PP Government been doing? Its 'social interest' is confirmed with some data. In the legislature of the Pact of Progress, the budgetary increase in the area of social services was consolidated, reaching 669.6 million euros in 2023 compared to the 462.5 that we found in 2019, an increase of 44.8% (compared to 29.6% of the total public accounts). The CC-PP Government, in its first budget for 2024, despite having the most expansive spending in the history of the Canary Islands, having increased 1,121 million euros (+11.0%) compared to 2023, the Ministry of Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Childhood and Family only had an insignificant increase of 33 million more in relation to the year 2023, therefore growing by a tiny 4.9%. Also failing to comply with the Social Services Law that requires an annual increase of "at least 55 million additional euros".
In addition, in relation to the items destined to combat poverty and social exclusion, in the budgets for 2024 the amount increased is ridiculous, being only 7 million euros in the Social Inclusion Promotion program, which is destined to the Canarian Citizen's Income.
In NC-bc we are convinced that we must aspire to a much fairer and more balanced Canarian society, with a better distribution of wealth and facing its intolerable levels of poverty and social exclusion. For this, it is essential, first of all, more and better employment, with active policies and adequate training, as well as with higher salaries that make it possible to end the widespread reality of people with employment, but impoverished.
We need budgets that guarantee powerful and well-funded public services -education, health, care policies...- that also contribute decisively to a redistribution of resources in terms of equity. And, consequently, with a fair and progressive taxation (and not with tax cuts for those who have the most, as the Government of the Canary Islands of the two rights does) that makes possible that strengthening of the public sector.
In addition, there must be a real turnaround in housing policies, today a factor of impoverishment for large social strata. Comprehensively developing the current Housing Plan, increasing the stock of protected houses, with adequate control of vacation rentals and measures aimed at bringing to the market a part of the 210,000 empty houses in the Archipelago, with programs such as the secure rental that NC-bc has proposed. And, likewise, it is necessary to continue extending and simplifying access to the Canarian Citizen's Income, to face inequality and advance in social cohesion.
It is about implementing and developing, in the short, medium and long term, a set of indispensable measures if we want to modify a regrettable and shameful reality, that of the high levels of poverty and social exclusion, which prevents hundreds of thousands of Canarians from developing a dignified life, and which threatens to become eternal in our community. Measures that are not among the priorities of the current Canarian Government, as was demonstrated in the current budget and as will be confirmed, unfortunately, in the public accounts for 2025.
