The Local Government Board will commission PIMESA to handle the urbanisation, and the municipal public company will take on the drafting of the necessary projects to progress into the next phases.
The Mayor of Elche, Pablo Ruz, alongside the Deputy Mayor and Councillor for Municipal Strategy, Francisco Soler, and municipal officials, have held a working meeting with the Director General for Housing Planning and Policies of the Generalitat Valenciana, Juan Antonio Perez. The meeting was arranged to analyse the new State Housing Plan and study how the upcoming planned actions in the San Anton neighbourhood will fit into it.
During the meeting, the officials discussed the continuity of the urban regeneration process currently being carried out in the neighbourhood. This strategic initiative is allowing old buildings to be replaced with new, accessible, efficient homes tailored to the current needs of the residents.
To date, the project has enabled the construction of 338 new homes, which began in 2014. These will soon be joined by another 45 homes that are currently in the tendering process, thanks to joint funding from the Generalitat Valenciana and Elche City Council.
Furthermore, work is already underway on a new phase that involves the construction of 328 homes distributed across four buildings, with an estimated investment of 41.6 million euro.
The Mayor, Pablo Ruz, highlighted that the meeting was “very positive” and has laid the foundations for signing the necessary agreements to make this new phase possible. “We are the first municipality in the Valencian Community to adhere to the new State Housing Plan, and there is a clear commitment from the Generalitat to move forward with the funding for the San Anton project,” he noted.
In this regard, the Local Government Board is going to commission PIMESA to urbanise this new phase, whilst the municipal public company will assume the drafting of the projects required to advance its development.
According to the studied forecasts, this action could benefit from a contribution of over 21.5 million euro coming from state and regional housing programmes. This will be supplemented by a municipal contribution of 1.1 million euro, and by the owners, who will take on 18.8 million euro of the total cost of the project.
Ruz explained that the administrative process involves the signing of an initial agreement between the Generalitat Valenciana and the Ministry of Housing. This will be followed by a specific agreement for the San Anton development and, subsequently, another agreement between the Generalitat and Elche City Council to definitively activate the funding and the execution of the works. He also emphasised that the four plots where the new buildings will be constructed are already under municipal ownership, a circumstance that will reduce paperwork and accelerate timescales.
For his part, the Deputy Mayor and Councillor for Municipal Strategy, Francisco Soler, pointed out that the will of all administrations involved is for the four buildings to be constructed simultaneously through a single tender. “The proposed formula will allow us to gain agility, reduce times, and move forward in a much more efficient way with the regeneration of the neighbourhood,” he explained.
Soler also highlighted that both the City Council and PIMESA are advancing technical work so that the project is ready as soon as the agreements are formalised. “San Anton is a project perfectly well known by both the Generalitat and the Ministry, who are aware of the needs of the neighbourhood and the importance of continuing to move forward with its transformation,” he noted.
This new phase will allow for the rehousing of residents from the old blocks 1, 5, 7, 9 and 10, representing a decisive step in the comprehensive regeneration of San Anton. With the construction of these 328 homes, two-thirds of the total homes planned for the entire project will be achieved.
