Sabadell City Council has reduced the first technical report when requesting a major works license from six and a half to two months. In the case of minor works licenses, the management period has been reduced by half, from two months to one. As Mayor Marta Farrés (PSC) explained yesterday, this change is due to the fact that, in the last four years, municipal technicians working on licenses have gone from six to eleven, electronic administration has been promoted to streamline the system and continue the online file and the same criteria are followed in the process. The improvement is evident compared to recent years. In May 2019, we had to wait three times as long, up to nine months, with a volume of files similar to now, as the technicians acknowledged.
Farrés sent a message of optimism for future investors. “For now, we are among the most agile municipalities in processing licenses. Before, we had a competitive disadvantage and companies did not look at us. Now they come looking for us regularly,” both to build new homes and businesses, she proudly assured.
In 2023, 404 licenses were requested, of which 209 were for major works and the rest were minor, which has involved 3,700 communications. The final license depends, in large part, on the quality of the project, according to experts in the sector. Last year, 412 licenses were granted, some from 2022.
“In Vallès there are many town councils that are not as fast as Sabadell,” explained the spokesperson for the College of Technical Architects. “In many cases we find ourselves with averages of between 8 and 9 months – even a year – to process the first technical report. This has to be reversed” because it makes the entire construction process difficult.
Among other improvements, the Licensing Board has been established, made up of those responsible for the Municipal Planning area of the Consistory, the professional associations of architects, technical architects, engineers, the Builders Guild of Sabadell and the Region, the real estate association Apialia and the Sabadell Bar Association. Its objective is to “exchange information about the projects that are being endorsed and, thus, the interested party does not have to resubmit the documentation.” Farrés concluded: “We had a blockage and, together, we have unblocked it.
