Is a Pact of State possible nowadays in Spain? Any analyst would quickly jump to a negative. And, instead, the Government's latest move demands the closest thing to a pact of these dimensions.
It is about 7 billion euros to build a large housing park, public or private, but of protected character and at affordable prices. It is the new State Housing Plan 2026-2030, approved this Tuesday by the Council of Ministers.
How has it been approved? Through a decree, which does not require its vote in Congress. However, its aid lines require another type of consensus: its agreement and application by the autonomous communities, which must contribute 40% of the funds.
With conditions. In addition to co-financing, the Executive has decided to condition the funds on a series of guarantees
- Permanent protection. All housing financed by the plan, whether public or private, will be subject to a permanent protection regime. If regional regulations do not provide for it, protection will be guaranteed through a registry annotation.
- Anti-fraud clause. Communities must have registers of applicants and transparent allocation mechanisms to prevent housing being handed over without guarantees.
- Institutional loyalty. Regional governments must inform citizens that the aid has state funding and is charged to the plan.
- Information exchange and evaluation. The plan provides for data exchange to launch a public housing information system and the plan's evaluation by the Advisory Council.
When would it start to apply?
The Government's roadmap is clear: after its approval this Tuesday in the Council of Ministers, the plan will be published in the Official State Gazette and this same month the round of technical meetings with each community will begin for the drafting of the agreements.
Before the end of April, the Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, is confident of meeting with all the communities in the multilateral commission and in May approving the distribution of funds among each administration in a sectoral conference.
Once the distribution of resources is approved and the Government agrees with each community on the collaboration agreements for the implementation of the different programs and aid lines, the deployment of the plan will begin.
When does the Government calculate that will happen? During the second half of the year, starting in July. Everything will depend, in any case, on the agreements that are signed and the execution of funds by the communities.
Are there possibilities of an agreement?
Despite the political rupture and the blockade to which the PP subjects all Government initiatives, in the Executive they have no doubt that the plan will be carried out.
The opposite would be to give up an important endowment of resources to carry out the number one policy among the concerns of Spanish citizens. And in line with what the 'popular' ones demand: to face the housing crisis from the need to increase supply.
The construction business community is also looking forward to the execution of a plan that will shower the sector with millions to boost activity over the next five years.
There are discrepancies, led, of course, by the Community of Madrid, which has rushed to question the plan and the conditions imposed by the Government for the disbursement of funds. It remains to be seen whether the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso is willing to assume the political price of not participating in the plan and renounce more than a billion euros that correspond to it by the distribution. "It is a cost that I do not know if the president of the Community is capable of assuming with some quip," asserted Rodríguez.
However, in the Ministry of Housing they prefer to focus on the disposition shown by other ‘popular’ governments , such as those of Castilla y León, Galicia or Aragón, which have publicly expressed their willingness to sign the agreements to execute the plan.
A plan drawn up with "care"
The plan is the Government's great asset for its housing policy and in the Ministry they do not hide that they have prepared its landing with "care" to maximize its possibilities. For example, in the chosen times.
Housing sources acknowledge to Democrat that the plan could have been approved weeks ago, but they agreed to allow time for processing in order, on the one hand, to incorporate allegations made by the autonomous communities and, on the other, to promote the plan during the electoral rally, where a photo with the Executive or a spirit of collaboration could have been a political price too high for some governments to pay.
The plan incorporates improvements not only from the communities, but also from the State Council. It is the first time, they assure in the Ministry, that the consultative body examines the plan, a decision they justify as it is the first plan based on the Housing Law, which recognizes the role of the central Administration in promoting public policies in this matter.
The minister herself explained this Tuesday at the end of the Council's press conference that it is precisely this law that enables greater interventionism from the State and conditioning of funds, since the plan acted as regulatory development and allowed accusations of a possible invasion of consequences to be circumvented.
Due to the lack of an "umbrella" law, recalled Rodríguez, one of her predecessors, Carme Chacón, failed to apply state-level regulations, which were later annulled for encroaching on competencies.