"Maybe it is not necessary to make new promotions away from the urban area when we have homes available within the urban area. The Minister of Mobility, Transportation and Housing of the Junta de Extremadura, Leire Iglesias, announced the regional government will give priority to rehabilitation ahead of the new buildings.
Iglesias spoke at the Regional Parliament to explain the basic lines of her management at the head of this new Ministry, with which special attention is given to competences in issues such as rail and road transport and housing policies.
Within the latter area, she said that the most sustainable way to promote the residential park is to recover empty homes, to which the General Directorate of Architecture and Building Quality will be dedicated. According to her, rehabilitation generates 30% more employment than new buildings, and also usually has a more local character. Along with this, he stressed that it allows recovering centers of cities and towns, something especially interesting in protected old towns. It is also a way to prevent growth towards the outskirts of the towns, an issue that forces municipalities to bear large costs to bring urban services to those neighborhoods.
For this reason, she said that "the review of the park of uninhabited housing and collaboration with local administrations will be essential." The Minister said that these issues will be included in a new Law of rehabilitation, regeneration and urban renovation, which will also affect public spaces. As she explained, if the houses have to have minimum habitability conditions, the urban environment must also have those conditions.
She also noted that the existing housing development and energy rehabilitation programs will maintain the same line. But he acknowledged that it will be necessary to adjust other actions to the demand, such as aid for young people who are installed in municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, who in their last call exhausted the available credit.
The counselor said that the goal that the Junta sets for the legislature is that Extremadura citizend do not have to spend more than 30% of their income to pay for their dwellings. Current figures put the region below that limit in fields such as rent, so she said it will focus on more disadvantaged groups.
Along with this, she said that she will bet on expanding the social housing stock and that the 100% reduction of the rent for families with financial problems will be maintained, as well as the eviction policies in case of social behavior.
Source: HOY
