Housing was the focus of a good part of the meeting between Pere Aragonès and Jaume Collboni, held this Wednesday afternoon at the Palau de la Generalitat, the first since the president's traditional reception for the new mayor as soon as he was sworn in, which took place on June 17. On that occasion the atmosphere between the two was harsh and on this last one, which lasted an hour and a quarter, on the other hand, cordial and, according to the assessments of the first mayor himself and the Minister of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, highly positive in face. to address the issues that both administrations have pending in favor of the city.
The housing folder is a priority for Collboni, who has proposed expanding the public park and, for this, requires the commitment of the Catalan Administration, which the president assured him yesterday. In this sense, the mayor offered the Generalitat 27 municipally owned plots for the Institut Català del Sòl (Incasòl) to build protected rental flats. According to City Council estimates, a total of 1,764 flats could be built on these lands.
Fourteen of these lots are available in the short term, practically immediately, and 13 in the medium term, but within the current municipal mandate, which ends in 2027. The first package may involve the construction of 811 homes and the second, another 953. All the promotions may involve, according to the numbers made by the municipal administration, an investment of 264.6 million euros.
"The main challenge is called housing, it is the true workhorse of the municipal government for the next four years," Collboni stressed after the meeting with Aragonès. "We know that it is a complex problem that does not have simple or quick solutions, but we must address it immediately," added the mayor, who appreciated the good reception of this proposal. Now, the technical services of the Incasòl will analyze case by case to determine in which lands it begins to work. The mayor expressed his wish that the maximum number of floors – all if possible – be put into operation in the present mandate.
"We cannot waste any more time, we must activate all the mechanisms we have to win the battle in favor of affordable housing," insisted Collboni, who opted for "making a real leap in scale" and, thanks to the increase in public supply, to be able to moderate prices and avoid that there are Barcelonans who have to leave the city due to the high cost of housing. In this area, he recalled the work done by the previous municipal government, in which his party, the PSC, formed a coalition with BComú –housing policies depended on the latter–, and which led to the fact that there are currently 4,892 flats under construction in Barcelona promoted by the City Council.
Aragonès announced in March the forecast of adding 10,000 homes to the social rental stock of Catalonia, a part of which is promoted by Incasòl. This unprecedented action is expected to be deployed in the 82 municipalities with the most access problems, the majority in the Barcelona metropolitan region, including the capital. So it was not specified where they would be built.
In the last municipal mandate with Ada Colau as mayor, the City Council and the Generalitat engaged in a controversy over the construction of housing by the Catalan Administration in Barcelona. The mayor of BComú accused the Government of not building in the capital and the Executive of Aragonès replied that he was not giving her lots.
Housing was one of the central issues of the 28-M electoral campaign. Collboni promised to put all mechanisms in place so that Barcelona's public park grows through collaboration with other administrations, especially with the Generalitat, which has the main powers in this area, and with the private sector. As for the Catalan Administration, he announced that he would cede land to it.
The president and the mayor also agreed to reactivate the bilateral commission between the administrations they lead. The next meeting will be on October 20. In it, the investments committed by the Generalitat in its 2023 budget in Barcelona will be evaluated –some of them the result of the ERC agreement with the PSC–, mainly in public transport, educational and health facilities, social services and security.
