Spain’s socialist PSOE and conservative PP parties align and vote against the initiative, which Esquerra spokeswoman Sara Bailac describes as “disappointing, while at the same time revealing how important they consider guaranteeing the right to housing in Catalonia is”
Esquerra Republicana presented before the Senate today, Wednesday, 24 April a motion urging the Spanish government to transfer all state properties in Catalonia, including housing and land owned by bad bank SAREB, and the repurposing of unused or non-essential state assets, with the aim of providing social housing. Spokeswoman Sara Bailac explained that her party “understood long ago the urgency of acting with structural measures,” and added that “the measures we are proposing are ambitious but possible. These are bold measures to guarantee the right to decent housing in Catalonia.”
“Housing is not merchandise,” lamented Ms Bailac. “While some defend a model that invites foreign investors to buy luxury flats in Barcelona, and while others do not do much to halt a model that is unfair for most people, we are taking action.” She went on to defend the need for “a determined commitment to public sector intervention in the housing market, to prevent everything from being left in the hands of speculators and forswearing one of the basic rights of all persons, i.e. access to a decent abode.”
Both Spain’s socialist PSOE and conservative PP parties voted against the initiative, which Esquerra spokeswoman Sara Bailac described as “disappointing, while at the same time revealing how important they consider guaranteeing the right to housing in Catalonia is,” while she criticized that “doing nothing in the face of the constant increase in rental prices and sustained job insecurity cannot be an option.” On this, Ms Bailac recalled the data: “According to Eurostat, in recent years Spain has become the European country where tenants have to allocate the greatest percentage of their income to cover the cost of housing, more than 30% of total household income. This is the magnitude of the housing emergency we are experiencing.”
In this regard, Ms Bailac made it clear that housing is a “political priority for Esquerra Republicana,” which the spokeswoman said was proven by the action by the Catalan Generalitat government in this matter. “Iin Catalonia, we have passed a law on urgent measures to face the emergency in the area of housing and energy poverty, which the Constitutional Court overturned. We have passed a law capping rents in Catalonia. We have declared 140 municipalities with tight market areas. We have promoted a plan to increase the social rent housing stock with an extra 10,000 flats by 2026. We have regulated housing for tourist accommodation. And today the Government has passed a decree-law to continue shielding the right to housing in Catalonia, to regulate those aspects that Spanish law does not cover.”
Ms Bailac criticized that the socialists have presented an amendment to diminish the content of the motion: “Where we say: The immediate transfer of [bad bank] Sareb's properties, you respond with ‘analyze Sareb's assets and properties’. How long ago did the Spanish Government take over the management of Sareb? Shouldn't this analysis be done by now? Shouldn't these properties already be available to the people? Where we say that they let us apply the Catalan price index to ensure that rental prices go down, you respond ‘analyze in the coming years the application of the state index’. Can we afford to wait years?”
Esquerra Republicana's motion also calls for the effective application of the index system by incorporating the Catalan price index to further reduce the average rental price in areas with a tight market, guarantee absolute respect for the powers of the Generalitat in matters of housing and Catalonia's own civil law, and transfer to the autonomous communities the resources that the State would allocate the Youth Rental Voucher, thus guaranteeing greater efficiency and effectiveness of public policies and resources.