David Lucas, Secretary of State for the Urban Agenda: “We have promoted more than 65,000 homes in five years. Mayors and presidents of the PP know it "

David Lucas, Secretary of State for Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, was mayor of Móstoles (the second most populous municipality in the Community of Madrid, with 210,000 inhabitants) between 2015 and 2018. In February 2020 he became part of the Government of Pedro Sánchez as Secretary General of the Urban Agenda and Housing.

He has been one of the intellectual authors of the law for the right to housing that was approved this Thursday in the Congress of Deputies.

Ask.

The regional presidents of the PP have announced that they will not apply the declaration of stressed areas, the instrument that will make it possible to control rental prices.

Is there any mechanism in the law that makes it possible to force these rebellious communities to comply with the objectives set in the norm?

Answer.

We are going to try to make these communities see that the instruments with which the housing law has been endowed for the declaration of these stressed areas are in favor of the tenants so that there is not a disproportionate increase in prices, but also that they are going to in favor of the landlords because they will be sure that the prices they put on these homes will be at market price if we are talking about large holders, and in the case of small owners, prices referenced to the price of the previous contract and also with some important bonuses that will allow them to make renting homes attractive to people with difficulties, such as young people in accessing the rental market, or have higher bonuses if they make it possible for prices to be more attractive.

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The black hole of public housing in Spain

Q.

You think that with this explanation you can convince, for example, the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who has already charged against this law announcing that it will not apply it and will appeal it.

What would she say to convince her?

R.

Madrid is one of the most stressed areas of Spain.

A city where there has been a very significant increase in rental prices.

In some areas they have grown in a speculative way and it would make you reflect on why you do not want to apply this rule that will benefit those families who have more economic difficulties so that there is no increase in prices like the one that has occurred.

I would also tell you that this law is necessary for housing to be a right and not just a market good.

And she would tell the president of the autonomous community that if she does not do it, what explanations will she give to its citizens when they see other areas where prices are being contained and not in Madrid.

Rental prices have grown in some areas of Madrid in a speculative way”

Q.

What has happened in Spain so that in the last two decades the construction of cheap and protected housing has collapsed so that today of every 10 houses that are built in Spain only one is protected, when in the eighties and nineties of the last century they reached 40%?

A.

The crisis came at the end of the first decade [of the 21st century], which lasted.

And then, later the PP governments did not bet on public housing.

If you look at the graphs published in our observatory, you will see that the promotion of affordable and protected social housing has risen when the PSOE governed and has fallen when the PP governed.

From 2018 to now we are working to reverse this situation, with more budget, with the Affordable Housing Plan, with collaborations with communities and town halls that allow us to build a public housing stock.

Q.

The PP accuses you of having announced a plan for 100,000 homes and not having built any in these five years of the government of Pedro Sánchez...

R.

The PP uses excessive demagogy.

We have the Housing Plan underway, which contemplates the promotion of 100,000 homes.

Most of these homes are arranged and agreed with communities and town halls, many of them with the PP.

Q.

What does it mean that most are agreed and agreed?

R.

They are agreements signed with these communities through the 2018-2021 state housing plan or the one we have put in place this year 2022-2025, or through specific agreements directly with town halls.

Of those 100,000 homes, there are 65%, some 65,000 homes that are already underway, some already built and others under construction.

Q.

I understand that these agreements have been, among others, with leaders of the PP in communities and town halls.

And yet the PP accuses them of not having built a single home.

Have you spoken with mayors and presidents of the PP these days on this matter?

R.

I have had the opportunity to meet some and some and I have told them.

I am not going to say names but I have told you that it is surprising that they do not come out and say that the agreements are being signed with their communities and town halls.

It seems surprising to me that they can say that these houses have not been promoted because PP governments, and there are many, that have signed with the State cannot make that statement.

Demagogy is gratuitous on the part of national leaders, the silence is worrying on the part of regional and local leaders.

But they know that the houses have been signed and are being promoted and they are also participants in the financing and construction.

Q.

For example, have you agreed or signed agreements with the governments of Ayuso in Madrid and Moreno Bonilla in Andalusia?

A.

Yes, of course.

And in addition, you can check on the ministry's website the homes that have been signed with them, both in the Recovery Plan and in the state plans.

"We have agreed agreements with the governments of Ayuso in Madrid and Moreno Bonilla in Andalusia"

Q.

Are those 65,000 homes going to be delivered during this legislature?

A.

Some have been delivered, others are now being launched.

From the signing of the agreements, there is an approximate delivery period of five years.

Those of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan must be delivered before 2026, those signed in the state housing plan have a delivery date of five years from its signing, and they have been signed since 2018. Those that are being Regularizing by Sareb are 13,000 homes, most of which are already in the regularization process.

What they have to understand is that houses are not screws, they are not manufactured from one day to the next, it is much more complex.

In addition to those promoted by the public entity Sepes, which are about 15,000 homes and which are also under development.

Q.

And how exactly does the State help in these 65,000 homes?

R.

Most of the money is provided by the State.

For example, in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience housing plan, what the State does is put 50,000 euros per house.

When we talk about the state plan we talk about a similar formula.

From the eighties to 2020, close to two million homes have been built by the public administration, but what has happened, that most of these homes have been property-based homes.

And those homes, unfortunately due to the previous regulations, what they did is that when a period of time ended they could be disqualified and sold [as free-price housing].

With which, we have never had a public housing stock or a subsidized housing stock that could provide an outlet for the needs of vulnerable people.

Q.

And how does the housing law resolve this problem?

R.

Since the approval of the law, new homes that qualify as subsidized housing may be sold, but always in the same conditions that were acquired.

They will not lose their subsidized housing status and if someone wants to sell them, a person who has the same conditions as the original person who bought them will have to buy them.

In addition, with the 183,000 rental homes that the President of the Government has announced, we are going to make up for a deficit, because public rental parks had not been built in Spain.

Q.

And if the municipal and regional governments decide not to reclassify land for subsidized housing and reclassify land only for free housing?

R.

The housing law increases the land reserve percentages for subsidized housing, from 30% to 40% in developable land.

And, in addition, at least 50% of these amounts, half, have to be for rent.

Q.

Is the new housing law a bargain for the squatters and a nightmare for the owners?

R.

It is not at all.

As of the promulgation of the law, what will happen is that those vulnerable families, with minor children, who have dependents, the elderly or victims of violence and who are in homes with large forks, before putting them on the street, when they are In civil proceedings, before that happens, the regional administration must be informed so that a mediation and arbitration procedure can be established, nothing more.

Before filing the eviction claim.

What does this mean?

If they do not reach an agreement, the administration can do two things: supply the part of the rent that you cannot afford or pay the rent.

And for that we have linked the resources of the state housing plan.

If there is no agreement, the eviction lawsuit can be filed and the process continues.

Q.

Illegal squatting, what is called trespassing or usurpation?

R.

Those raids that are reflected in the Criminal Code continue to be treated in the same way, there is no change in this regard.

The housing law establishes only a protection mechanism for people who are economically vulnerable and only when they are in homes with large holders, who have 10 or more homes. These assumptions do not cover small owners, 85% of small owners who They exist in Spain.

The United Nations Committee on Economic and Social Rights has reiterated to us many times that we have to establish solutions so that vulnerable families do not find themselves on the streets without a housing solution that the administration can provide.

The raids that are reflected in the Penal Code continue to be treated in the same way”

Q.

What is the reason for this offer on electoral eve and for deliveries of tens of thousands of homes by the President of the Government, an offer full of doubts about the dates of execution, the availability of land from the Ministry of Defense or from the own Sareb homes?

R.

It is the culmination of hard work that has been done during the legislature.

When we arrived in 2018, this ministry only had 1,690 homes planned.

There was no more, there was an absolute deficit.

The mobilization of Sareb homes was already being worked on by the ministry and now an effort is being made to mobilize these homes.

Or with land that we have identified with the Ministry of Defense that is now available to be able to redevelop it and dedicate it to residential areas to obtain a larger housing stock.

We exercise responsibility in the face of a historical deficit.

Q.

Do you, who have been mayor of Móstoles, believe that the new law facilitates housing policies?

R.

What this law does is guarantee rights, and establish important references in terms of housing, it gives city councils instruments to establish mechanisms that mobilize empty homes, because it mobilizes more protected land, to make more rental housing possible and to Provide instruments to protect vulnerable families.

I, who have been mayor, sometimes did not have the instruments or resources to find solutions for these vulnerable families.

Nor did I have instruments to avoid speculation in areas of my municipality with skyrocketing prices.

With this law, public parks are protected, they cannot be sold, we will all be safer.

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