[Diggers350] Spains snap election could kill its housing revolution before it even gets started
Tony Gosling
tony at cultureshop.org.uk
Wed Jun 14 00:18:53 BST 2023
Spains snap election could kill its housing
revolution before it even gets started
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/05/spain-snap-election-housing-revolution-law-rightwing
Eduardo González de Molina
The countrys new housing law could change so
much but may be reversed if rightwing parties gain more influence
<https://www.theguardian.com/profile/eduardo-gonzalez-de-molina>Eduardo
González de Molina Mon 5 Jun 2023 10.00 BSTLast
modified on Mon 5 Jun 2023 21.33 BST
A housing revolution is taking place in Spain. On
26 May, a monumental new housing law came into
force. It was the culmination of years of work
and sought to enshrine housing as a human right.
But now that vision is in danger. Two days after
the law passed, rightwing parties won seats in
local and regional elections. Last week Spains
prime minister, Pedro
Sánchez,<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/29/spain-pm-calls-snap-election-after-opposition-and-far-right-wins-in-local-polls-pedro-sanchez>
called a snap election. On 23 July, when Spain
goes to the polls, the fate of this law will hang in the balance.
The origins of the law go back decades. In 1956,
José Luis de Arrese, who would become Francos
first housing minister, said that
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/spain>Spain
had to change from a country of working-class
tenants to a country of homeowners. Governments
encouraged property ownership at the expense of
renting. It created a new class of social housing
publicly protected housing. Unlike your
average council home, a publicly protected home
is subsidised by the government and offered for
sale at an affordable price. Once 30 years have
elapsed, it can be sold on the free market.
This model has made Spain one of the largest
property-owning countries in the west, with
almost
<https://fundacionalternativas.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/df921b0eb942d0ce4c114e5463934e1a.pdf>80%
of housing owner-occupied. While Spain built 6.5m
publicly protected homes, only 400,000 now remain.
The cracks in this model
<https://socialhousingfestival.eu/to-improve-affordability-spain-needs-more-rental-housing/>appeared
in 2008. As the real estate crisis swept across
the world, a wave of evictions unfolded in Spain.
Many people who had lost their homes started to
rent. Demand leaped up in the countrys small and
under-regulated private letting sector. Rents
<https://www.tellerreport.com/business/2023-05-31-the-price-of-rents-has-grown-17-times-more-than-wages-in-spain.HkV0RAfEUn.html>increased
by 51.4%, while wages rose only 3.4% over the
decade that followed. As a result, Spain now has
the
<https://elobservatoriosocial.fundacionlacaixa.org/-/sistema-de-vivienda-y-estado-del-bienestar-el-caso-espanol-en-el-marco-europeo>highest
housing cost overburden rate in Europe, the
number of people for whom total housing costs
represent more than 40% of income. The evictions
crisis planted the seed for Spains housing
movement, led by anti-eviction campaigners and tenants unions.
It was in Barcelona that the housing revolution
was born. Ada Colau, a tenants organiser, was
elected mayor in 2015. Since then,
<https://medium.com/iipp-blog/barcelonas-housing-mission-from-a-market-fixing-to-a-market-shaping-approach-b52f9ab6ae>the
city has changed the paradigm of its housing
policy. Instead of standing back and letting the
market take the lead, the state has intervened to
shape the housing market so everyone has access
to adequate, sustainable and affordable housing.
In Barcelona, the stock of council housing has
<https://bcnroc.ajuntament.barcelona.cat/jspui/handle/11703/130616>doubled
and the vast majority of evictions have ceased.
Meanwhile, the city government has tried to stop
the advance of gentrification by acquiring empty
private buildings and regulating Airbnb
apartments. It even passed a
<https://www.nyc.gov/assets/hpd/downloads/pdfs/about/rethinking-rent-control-in-spain.pdf>rent
control law that reduced rents by 6% without
reducing the housing supply. But it was
<https://www.catalannews.com/politics/item/spain-s-constitutional-court-annuls-vast-majority-of-catalan-rent-cap-law>declared
by the courts to be unconstitutional on grounds
of jurisdiction. It was partially from this legal
defeat that the Spanish housing law emerged.
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/26/shredding-green-belt-recipe-for-disaster-planning-policy-housing>Shredding
the green belt is a recipe for disaster. We need a saner planning policy
Simon Jenkins
Simon Jenkins
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/26/shredding-green-belt-recipe-for-disaster-planning-policy-housing>
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/26/shredding-green-belt-recipe-for-disaster-planning-policy-housing>Read
more
If enacted, the new law would represent a
paradigm shift. It would prevent the
privatisation of council housing, and set a
target of creating 20% more social housing over
the next 20 years. It would increase protections
for vulnerable tenants, and tax landlords who
hold on to empty homes. It includes new tax
incentives for landlords who reduce prices or
offer long-term lets. Most significantly, it
would introduce provisions for national rent
control, which
<https://www.expansion.com/catalunya/2023/04/16/643c28eee5fdea683c8b463e.html>Barcelona
has pledged to adopt. The law isnt perfect: it
includes loopholes for people who own tourist or
seasonal housing, and regional governments can opt out of some provisions.
Even so, it is a radical shift that would
<https://councilonurbaninitiatives.com/resources/right-to-housing-a-mission-oriented-and-human-rights-based-approach>guarantee
the right to housing, developing the housing
system as a pillar of the welfare state. But a
question mark hangs over its fate. As the
supporters of rightwing parties congregated in
public squares after the 28 May elections, the
future of Barcelonas government looked
increasingly uncertain. If a rightwing party
takes control of the municipality, its housing
achievements could be reversed. Revolution
aborted? Well only know once the election results are in.
* Eduardo González de Molina is a policy
adviser at
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/barcelona>Barcelona
city council and an affiliate academic at the UCL
Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
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