Barcelona City Council

Dear Joan Ramon,

Nowadays, ensuring access to housing is our most urgent need. Barcelona must take the lead with the most advanced housing policies. This will be a cross-cutting initiative throughout the government. We are determined to win this battle and we will do so by acting in all areas. We will also promote a grand alliance with the whole city, with all sectors: social and economic.

Housing is a right, as specified in Article 47 of the Spanish Constitution, and not an object for speculation that depends on the market. All public administrations have a duty to use their jurisdiction in this regard. 

In regard to the regulatory framework, it is in transition: on one hand we have the new 12/2023 Housing Act, which should come into force in Barcelona soon, but this in turn demands a new Catalan Act of Parliament in order to regulate the non-residential uses of housing, to avoid the loss of the city’s housing stock to other uses.

Among other things, people’s right to the city depends on the right to affordable housing, accessibility and sustainability. In this regard, our commitment will be transversal. This challenge must be dealt with continuously over time, and from a metropolitan perspective.

We aim to be leaders in the implementation of the new Spanish Housing Act, in collaboration with all the stakeholders involved. Our commitment is to increase the city’s stock of all types of housing, under all types of regime, but above all, publicly-owned housing with affordable rents. Therefore, the city’s offer of housing in general, and affordable housing in particular, must be increased. It is also necessary to facilitate access to the most vulnerable groups. We must also remember the importance of the sector in achieving net-zero emissions, as well as the accessibility of the housing stock and, in this regard, the rehabilitation of housing involves a great economic opportunity.

For this reason, as Commissioner for Housing, you should focus on the following priorities:

• Increasing the city’s housing stock. Making the programming of new housing easier, via new planning and management instruments. Adjusting the current 30% quota for social housing, so that it really complies with its purpose, and making it possible for this to result in financial contributions to the City Council from promoters in order to offer affordable rental housing. Working to make the transformation of ground-floor premises more flexible on non-commercial streets.
• Leading the increase in the city’s offer of affordable social housing. We aim to comply with the goal established in the Metropolitan Urban Development Master Plan (PDUM) for 100,000 housing units by 2050; in order to achieve this, you need to promote a new Barcelona Housing Plan. Ensuring an increase in the city’s protected public housing stock. Promoting policies to make full use of dwellings that are currently empty. Collaborating with the Barcelona Metropolitan Area on the first Metropolitan Housing Plan for the 2024-2030 period.
• Coordinating policies that facilitate access to housing. Promoting the protection of the right to housing, improving the related social services. Developing a new strategy for attracting private housing to the city’s public stock, with the mission of facilitating the emancipation of young people in Barcelona. Promoting shared housing with services for senior citizens or people with disabilities. Providing support for the creation of a municipal inspection unit for detecting abuses in this sector.
• Promoting public-private collaboration measures, in order to significantly increase the rehabilitation of housing, thereby fostering decarbonisation and universal accessibility in the city’s private sector. Collaborating with Barcelona Activa to improve lines of professional training relating to this challenge. Intensifying urban-regeneration initiatives in vulnerable neighbourhoods and introducing or reinforcing offices in those areas to assist local residents.

The housing challenge requires that we deploy all our capacity for action and consensus, so that all sectors and administrations join forces. I am sure that your work will be decisive in this respect.

Kind regards,