The Government confirms the “unrest” over housing but rejects a rent strike: “It is not the way”

The Government has reaffirmed its commitment to expanding the public housing stock after taking note of the “unrest” expressed in the massive demonstration this Saturday in Barcelona, ​​although it has rejected the rent strike that the Tenants Union wants to organize.

This is what the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, explained in statements to RAC-1. “The rent strike is not the way of the Government,” said the spokesperson for the Generalitat, who insisted that housing “is the main problem of Catalans and the main challenge” of her Executive.

The day after the Barcelona march, which was the last in a cycle of mobilizations for housing in the large cities of Spain, it was confirmed that the positions between the Government and the Tenants’ Union are far apart when it comes to proposing solutions facing the rental problem.

Paneque has insisted that the Executive’s path involves increasing supply and “ensuring 15%” of the public housing stock. “We have to expand the public housing stock to ensure access to affordable housing,” he reiterated. The percentage of public social housing in Catalonia is around 2% of the stock, compared to the European average of 15%.

The demands of the Tenants’ Union, on the other hand, are more aimed at a strong market intervention to guarantee housing as a right and limit its use as a business: lowering rents by 50%, indefinite contracts, recovering the apartments for residential use. empty, tourist and seasonal rental and impose high taxes on rentiers who are multi-owners of homes.

Paneque has defended the Government’s policies to acquire homes so that they do not lose social protection, while reaffirming his commitment to inspection to monitor seasonal rentals.

Also in an interview on RAC-1, the spokesperson for the Tenants’ Union, Carme Arcarazo, criticized that the “only” policy proposed by the Government is to “build 50,000 apartments.” “If we propose a titanic effort like the rent strike, it is because of the inaction of governments for years,” he added.