The Minister of Territorial Planning, Urbanism, Housing and Citizen Rights, Ovidio Zapico, defended this Tuesday before the General Junta the shift that, in his view, has been made in housing policy since the start of the current legislature.
In his speech, he stressed that Asturias already has 621 public housing units completed or underway and that the Principality has put 86 million into circulation in aid in this area in a little over a year.
Zapico explained that the work of his department is structured around three essential axes: increasing the public housing stock, acting on the market when necessary and correcting the shortcomings detected in management.
In relation to the latter, he pointed out that the report of the Sindicatura de Cuentas relating to 2023 and 2024 confirms the existence of deficiencies already known to the ministry. "There was a series of deficiencies that must be acknowledged because they were there and that I never hid," he stated.
To respond to these problems, the ministry is focused on improving the protected housing system, reviewing the awarding processes and strengthening inspection work. As an example, the minister highlighted that Vipasa carried out 1,916 inspections during 2024, a figure that does not appear in the Sindicatura document.
Regarding the balance of the legislature, Zapico emphasized that the 621 homes already completed or under execution are part of a broader plan aimed at increasing the public residential housing stock, a line of action that will continue in the coming months with new developments. Among them, he mentioned the one in Sotrondio, in San Martín del Rey Aurelio, put out to tender last week.