BarcelonaOn the eve of this Saturday’s demonstration for housing, the Generalitat and the Barcelona City Council have closed this Friday a series of agreements which, among others, aim to speed up the expansion of the public housing stock. In a meeting of the mixed commission, both administrations have agreed on three measures whereby the Generalitat will contribute 120 million euros for the construction of public housing in the Catalan capital.
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This money, which is pending the approval of the Generalitat’s budget, will arrive through three ways: on the one hand, both administrations have committed to sign an agreement in the next three months through which the Generalitat will contribute 22 million euros to co-finance the construction by the Municipal Housing Institute (IMHAB) before 2027 of 1,151 affordable homes in the city. These flats, which the IMHAB had already planned to develop, will therefore receive a significant economic boost from the other side of Plaça Sant Jaume.
The most important item, however, has to do with the agreement that Incasòl and the City Council signed a year ago and by which Barcelona ceded plots of land to the Generalitat to build public housing. The Generalitat has committed to contribute 88 million euros for the financing of the first phase of that agreement which provides for the construction of 637 flats on 11 plots, so that they do not have to be financed with Incasol bonds as was planned until now.
Among the housing agreements signed this Friday, there is also the commitment of the Generalitat to acquire for a figure close to 10 million euros the four properties that were auctioned by the Hospital Clínic and that did not yet have buyer The other block, the only one that did receive an offer, will finally be kept by Barcelona City Council, which announced that it will exercise the right of trial to keep it before the end of the year.
Both governments have also agreed on a declaration in defense of housing in which, among other aspects, they undertake to promote the legal measures that are appropriate in order to ensure and legally shield the municipal decision to eliminate all tourist flats for in 2028. They also underline the need to regulate seasonal rental with an effective rule that guarantees the necessary legal certainty. Finally, they undertake to promote the organizational deployment of the Barcelona Housing Consortium.
After the meeting, the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, and the counselor of the Presidency, highlighted “the maximum complicity” between both administrations. “It has been the bilateral commission of the last decade that has been able to reach a higher number of more relevant agreements”, Dalmau said.
Tourist tax i meter
Among the agreements signed this Friday by the Generalitat and Barcelona City Council is also a commitment to modify the tourist tax. The aim is for Barcelona to be able to raise its surcharge – the part it collects in full and which it can use to cover expenses not directly related to tourism – from the current 4 euros to a maximum of eight. This was one of the requests that Esquerra made to the government of Jaume Collboni to allow it to process the tax ordinances.
The Councilor of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, has explained that this change in the law that regulates the tourist tax is to be done through the law accompanying the budgets. So that in order for it to be able to go ahead, it will first be necessary for the ERC and commons to vote in favor of the accounts of the Generalitat in Parliament. The mayor, Jaume Collboni, has stressed that extending the cap to eight euros does not necessarily mean having to use it up.
The two executives have also agreed to speed up the extension of Line 4 of the metro so that it reaches from La Pau to La Sagrera station. The objective is to have the executive project of this work awarded before the end of the year, which must promote intermodality, since it will connect the L4 with the L1, the L5, the L9, Rodalies and the future station of high speed
In the field of public transport, both administrations have also committed to make a common front to demand that the Spanish government convert the current contributions of 149 million euros for public transport into structural ones while the new law on sustainable mobility.
The investments planned by the Generalitat in the city of Barcelona also include 15 million euros for the equipment of the second phase of the expansion of the Hospital del Mar, as well as to promote the tendering of the first phase of the works for to the new facilities for external consultations and other outpatient services at the Hospital de la Vall d’Hebron.