Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

In the context of the plenary session, held on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 8, of the Barcelona Social Housing Council (CHSB), this consultative and participatory body of the Barcelona City Council’s Housing Consortium approved its first request to the competent administrations, concerning the allocation of Next Generation EU loans to address the financing difficulties encountered by associations, foundations and/or cooperatives when carrying out built or renovated developments.

In particular, the Council asks the State for a volume of 10.000 million euros Next Generation EU in the form of loans repayable for 40 years, of which 10 years of a grace period and 30 years of amortization, and at zero financial cost, and only with management fees. In this sense, it suggests that the State allocate the loanable funds to regional financial agencies, ethical banks, and accredited social economy entities so that they can distribute them among the entities dedicated to the promotion of social rental housing that meet all the requirements.

The Council’s request comes in response to a current reality that is difficult to manage in Spain, where the stock of social rental housing is clearly insufficient. To be precise, it represents only 1.6% of the total stock, compared to an average of 15% in Europe. Also, the number of registered applicants for subsidized housing is 400,000 people, and only 2.5% of the housing stock is social, compared to 9.3% in the European Union.

All of these issues, as well as the lack of private financing to promote social rental housing and the increase in construction prices, prompted the Council’s claim, and it then went on to address other points of interest.

Next Generation EU funds, a lever for change

In this regard, the Generalitat was asked to subsidize ICF credits for the promotion of social housing so that a fixed interest rate would be affordable, as well as that NGEU subsidies for subsidized rental housing developments could be requested according to the price of the module and that the Generalitat itself would subsidize the differential between social rents and the price of HPOs under the general regime.

In another line, the Council also suggested that the Catalan government implement the same mechanism that has been developed by the Barcelona City Council regarding the public guarantee for financing, in case of non-payment of 5 installments of the loan for subsidized housing developments for rent or transfer of use.

In response to these requests, the Council makes a direct reference to the Next Generation EU funds, approved in July 2020 by the European Council, and endowed with 806,900 million euros by all the member states, of which 360.000 million are in the form of repayable loans (with a correspondence for Spain of 140.000 million).

In parallel, the 2021 balance of the Right to Housing Plan of Barcelona left some relevant and positive data on the table. Among others, the 80.000 people who have been able to maintain their housing thanks to rental payment aid, as well as the 268 housing units awarded throughout the year through the Emergency Table, the 19 million euros granted in the form of rehabilitation aid by the City Council and the Generalitat, which have allowed some 12.500 people to improve their building or home, and the 10.800 new people who have been able to stay in public housing in the city between 2016 and 2021.

The CHSB, a space for citizen participation

Established on February 26, 2007, as an instrument for generating opinion and proposals among citizens, the Council is a consultative and participatory body on housing policy in the city within the framework of the Barcelona Housing Consortium, formed by the Generalitat de Catalunya and Barcelona City Council.

It is made up of approximately one hundred members, representing the Generalitat and the City Council, municipal political groups, public bodies and companies related to the planning and construction of housing, sectoral councils of municipal participation, non-profit social entities, associations, and social support entities for access to housing, cooperative entities, the neighborhood movement, trade unions, social foundations, universities, professional associations, and schools, among others.

Endowed with more specific functions and greater involvement and follow-up in the housing policy that marks the day-to-day life of the city of Barcelona, the Council arose from the experience of the Social Housing Working Group of the Municipal Council of Social Welfare of the Barcelona City Council, which encouraged the Consortium to create this body.