The government confirms the “unrest” around housing but rejects a rent strike: “This is not the right solution”

The government reaffirmed its commitment to developing the social housing stock after taking note of the “unrest” expressed during this Saturday’s massive demonstration in Barcelona, ​​although it rejected the rent strike that the Tenants’ Union wants to organize .

This was explained by the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, in statements to RAC-1. “The rent strike is not the way of the government,” declared the spokesperson for the Generalitat, who insisted that housing “is the main problem of the Catalans and the main challenge” of its executive.

In the aftermath of the Barcelona march, the latest in a cycle of housing mobilizations in Spain’s major cities, it was confirmed that the positions between the government and the tenants’ union are very divergent when it comes to aims to propose solutions to the rental problem.

Paneque insisted that the Executive’s path involves increasing supply and “guaranteeing 15%” of the social housing stock. “We must expand the social housing stock to guarantee access to affordable housing,” he reiterated. The percentage of public social housing in Catalonia is around 2% of the stock, compared to a European average of 15%.

The demands of the Tenants’ Union, on the other hand, are more aimed at strong intervention in the market to guarantee the right to housing and limit its use as a commercial activity: reduction in rents by 50%, contracts of indefinite duration, recovery of apartments at residential use. . Empty, tourist and seasonal rentals impose high taxes on multi-owner housing renters.

Paneque defended the government’s policy to acquire housing so that they do not lose social protection, while reaffirming his commitment to an inspection to control seasonal rentals.

Also in an interview with RAC-1, the spokesperson for the Tenants’ Union, Carme Arcarazo, criticized the fact that the “only” policy proposed by the government is to “build 50,000 apartments”. “If we are proposing a titanic effort like the rent strike, it is because of the inaction of governments for years,” he added.