Affordable Homes Plan Boasts Questioned

In a week where the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez of the PSOE, announced more social housing and that he would give the funds and functions to the autonomous communities, the regional president, Carlos Mazón, met with his colleague from the PP, mayor of Torrevieja, Eduardo Dolón, to lavish praise on their plans to build social housing in the region, which, in turn, has promoted the PSOE of Torrevieja to claim that the latter pair are lying when they talk about the Plan Vive.

Sánchez chaired an event in which the Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, and the Minister of Economy, Business and Trade, Carlos Cuerpo, signed agreements by which 6 billion euro are mobilised through the Official Credit Institute (ICO) for the construction of affordable rental housing.

Meanwhile, during the regional launch event in Torrevieja, Mazón said, “The Plan Vive will develop 600 homes in Torrevieja that will benefit more than 1,600 people”.

He highlighted that the Torrevieja Council “was the first in the province of Alicante to join this initiative and will be a pioneer in moving forward with new housing, especially for young people and vulnerable groups”, then underlining the commitment of the government of change with the “housing legislation, a constitutional right that has been forgotten for years”.

However, Bárbara Soler, spokesperson for the local socialist municipal group, maintains that the plots in La Hoya were always intended and conditioned to be social housing, so “it is not the result of the management of Eduardo Dolón or Mazón, but rather they were going to be built with or without the Plan Vive”, as local residents around La Hoya, currently being developed as the Lagoons Village (typical prices between 200,000 and 500,000 euro), have known for many years.

And as for the rest of the housing units promised throughout the Valencian Community within the framework of the said plan, Soler affirms that 3,000 correspond to the management of the Botànic, the previous regional government, with European funds and help from the Ministry of Housing.

The socialist has shown herself to be in favour of social housing being built in La Mata, but has focused on the fact that fewer and fewer are being announced: “at first there were going to be around 750 in La Hoya alone and now there are 600 in total, they are being lost along the way and they are still boasting about it”.

In addition, the spokesperson states, “the most important thing when building VPO is that the price is affordable, and unfortunately the Mazón government has in some places raised the rental prices of public housing by up to 40% more”. In some cities, this price is only 2 euro per square metre difference to the free market price, which Soler describes as “intolerable” and anticipates that, foreseeably, the prices of the housing built in Torrevieja will not be better.

She also criticised Mazón for not applying the measures of the State Housing Law to declare areas under pressure and prevent some prices from remaining similar to the levels of the real estate bubble, “if he cares so much about young people being able to become independent and families being able to access affordable housing, he should go to the root of the problem and stop selling smoke”.

The general secretary of the local PSOE also took the opportunity to recall some of the measures that the regional regulations would allow to be adopted and that she considers applicable to municipalities such as Torrevieja: “there is a Decree-Law that allows the acquisition of housing by exercising the rights of first refusal and withdrawal under certain conditions and, in cities such as ours, with a huge stock of empty housing, it would be a perfect solution to not have to continue building”. Among the advantages of applying these measures, Soler points out, “we would avoid the ghettos that arise when all social housing is concentrated in a single point and we would avoid that housing being acquired for speculative purposes, as is happening, because the Generalitat would have the right to acquire it preferentially.”

According to the Cadastral register, there are around 120,000 residential properties in Torrevieja. The Institute for National Statistics (INE) estimates that there are 30,000 vacant properties in Torrevieja. The town hall recently boasted of 100,000 registered residents, from which we can also deduce the number of vacant homes.

Finally, Soler stressed that “the Partido Popular does not stop complaining about the inheritance it has received, but it is from this inheritance, from these projects and these plans, even if they change their name, that they have been living for more than a year.”