The Government is going to create a youth voucher for housing rental endowed with 250 euros per month for the next two years and that will benefit young people between 18 and 35 years of age. The requirement to grant this aid is that the beneficiaries earn less than 23,725 euros per year. As announced by President Pedro Sanchez in Seville, in the case of the most vulnerable families, this young bonus may be completed with direct rental aid of up to 40%. “What we are going to do is a public policy aimed at reducing the age of emancipation, which is very high in our country, so that young people can access decent housing with the support of the State,”
Sanchez has commented that these measures are included within the recovery policies that, in addition to being economic, must be “fair”. “And this implies facilitating access to housing, especially for those most vulnerable to precariousness, such as young people,” he added, pointing out that the intention is to advance the age of emancipation in Spain to 26 years, the European average.
The aid is part of the General State Budget agreement and the Housing Law. Sanchez took advantage of the forum to review the achievements of his Government in the last three years in terms of housing, increasing the allocation of the housing plan to also attend to vulnerable groups such as the victims of sexist violence and those affected by the evictions of the 900,000 families benefit. And he also recalled how in 2019 urgent measures were approved to increase rental stability: extending the duration of contracts from 3 to 5 or 7 years, limiting price increases to the CPI, as well as deposits and guarantees, setting limits to tourist housing before the pandemic and applying fiscal measures to stimulate the supply of rental housing. Altogether 2,
“In the face of this economic and social emergency, we have raised a great social shield, the greatest paradigm is the ERTEs that have protected 3.7 million people in the most difficult moments, but which also had its translation into housing policies”, Sanchez has assured, in reference to the moratorium on mortgage debt and rental contracts for situations of vulnerability, the suspension of eviction procedures or the extraordinary extension of the rental contracts of the habitual residence, all measures that have been prolonged until October 31.
The Government is developing the affordable rental housing plan that includes promoting the promotion of around 100,000 social rental homes. “Sustaining these actions implies numbers and for this reason the General State Budgets for 2021 contemplate 2,250 million euros in housing, 373% more than the previous year”, detailed the President of the Government for whom to talk about housing and urban planning also implies talking about employment, the self-employed and the social economy. And on this path, according to Sanchez, progress is also being made on the right track, something that he has argued with the unemployment data for the month of September: 76,113 fewer unemployed and 57,387 more workers affiliated with Social Security.
In order not to fall into complacency, Sanchez recalled that the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan includes measures, reforms and public investments to leverage up to 500,000 million euros in private investment to create jobs around two main axes: the ecological transition and digital, “the latter understood as the reindustrialization of our country.”
In this sense, Sanchez has ensured that Andalucia has all the possibilities to lead this change in the production model in Spain as a whole. “The Government of Spain is not going to fail and is going to be with the cities, with the Andalusian Government and with the businessmen and unions”, he guaranteed, addressing the Andalusian president, Juan Manuel Moreno, and the mayor of Seville, Juan Espadas, present in the auditorium.
Sanchez has also referred to two measures approved this Tuesday in the Council of Ministers and whose objective is to promote residential rehabilitation, a task for which he has requested the collaboration of the municipalities and autonomous communities.
Specifically, the Government has approved a decree that regulates aid for rehabilitation within the framework of European funds and that has a budget of 2,970 million euros and that includes aid to rehabilitate homes and public spaces in neighborhoods with specific needs ( €976 million); for reforms in residential buildings aimed at obtaining improvements of 30% in energy efficiency (1,774 million euros to subsidize up to 80% of the cost of the works); and similar aid also to improve energy efficiency in single-family homes (220 million euros).
The second decree focuses on modifying the Horizontal Property Law to make it easier for communities of owners to make decisions for the energy rehabilitation of buildings and homes. And deductions have been set for rehabilitation in personal income tax for a value of 450 million euros and a line of guarantees for a value of 1,100 million euros has been established so that the state guarantees communities of owners with fewer resources. Together, these measures represent 6,800 million euros. “We want to undertake more than half a million rehabilitation actions over the next few years and in the last decade an average of 30,000 per year have been undertaken,” Sanchez pointed out.
These government rehabilitation plans are based on the initiative of the European Commission Renovation Wave, which arises from the Joint Research Center (JRC) based in Seville and was promoted by the Green Deal working group of the European Committee of the Regions chaired by by the mayor of Seville.
Sanchez has warned that this great commitment must also be accompanied by training plans because labor, qualified employment, will be necessary.
In addition, the president has pointed out that the Government is going to approve the first State Housing Law of democracy, a milestone that will offer legal coverage to social and protected housing.
They have not been the only announcements. Sanchez has referred to what is the second line of action of the Urban Agenda of Spain, sustainable mobility and has cited Seville as a pioneer city council. Along these lines, he recalled that the Climate Change Law was already approved in May and that all municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants must have urban mobility plans before 2023 and thus establish low-emission zones, facilitate walking, improve public transport and promote private electric mobility. To help in this challenge, the Government has extraordinary resources of 6,536 million euros for the decarbonisation of cities. And he has also emphasized another new norm that will be born shortly within the framework of European funds: the Architecture Quality Law.
“We need cohesive and sustainable cities, clean and that facilitate access to housing for young people and we already have instruments such as the aforementioned youth bonus, aid to promote rehabilitation and sustainable mobility or the Housing Law”, summarized the president , which has encouraged the mayors present at the forum to contribute their experiences and proposals.
The 1st Urban Forum of Spain was born as an event that gives a voice to governments, companies and different social agents so that they contribute their ideas and solutions in this stage of economic recovery. And that this year, in its premiere, it has coincided in the same place, Fibes, with the III Forum of Local Governments, a meeting organized by the City Council of Seville and that is consolidated as a dialogue between rulers from all over the world who share their management experiences and that began within the framework of the sustainable development goals. Representatives of more than 200 public administrations from different countries participate in these events.

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