The minister of transport, mobility and urban agenda, Raquel Sánchez, announced that the Government of Spain will mobilize 10,000 million euros for Housing until 2025, thanks to the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), at the new State Housing Plan, the youth voucher, the Affordable Rent Plan and the set of measures that have been adopted in this area.
In her speech at the New Economy Forum, which took place in Madrid, Raquel Sánchez reviewed the main actions in which her department works and the main challenges for the future that she has ahead of her.
The minister has emphasized that investment in housing has multiplied by five in the current Budgets and contemplates for 2022 the largest investment in history, 3,290 million. This figure is seven times more than what is set in the 2018 Budgets. It is a historical amount that will be invested mainly in rehabilitation and public promotion and whose objective is to respond to the social urgency of the most vulnerable.
The head of the department also addressed the Housing Law project, which she described as a definitive step to make the right to housing the fifth pillar of the Welfare State. This law will allow the creation of public housing parks and will offer mechanisms to provide decent and affordable houses to the less favored sectors, as well as solutions to evictions.
In addition, she affirmed that the law imposes an obligation on the public powers when it comes to guaranteeing access to housing, especially considering groups that, like young people, have difficulties in doing so. The minister pointed out, among other issues, that said legislative project includes different incentives that encourage owners to take out rental apartments at reduced prices.
Right to mobility
Regarding the future Mobility Law, Raquel Sánchez remarked that this implies a radical change, since I understand mobility as a right, so that any citizen has mobility opportunities within his reach regardless of where he resides, your income level, your gender, your social class, your possible physical limitations, or whether or not you use a private vehicle.
In addition, she established the need to link mobility to environmental protection and economic and social development. The formula for this is to make transport more efficient and intelligent; promoting less polluting modes such as rail and public transport and other more sustainable means.
It is about implementing a model that allows us environmental sustainability. "We are risking the health of the planet," said Raquel Sánchez.
Hence, he commented, that the 2022 Budgets allocate considerable resources to this sustainable and innovative mobility, the most significant being those for the railroad, which leads these investments with more than 6,700 million, with a boost to the conventional and commuter network and the promotion of freight transport by this means.
On the other hand, the minister mentioned the opportunity that for a just recovery, which leaves no one behind, is the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), which proposes a modernization based on the ecological transition, digital transformation and cohesion social and territorial and gender equality.
Mitma, he stressed, has a leading role in the preparation of the Plan and continues to play it in its execution, since the three components in which it participates are a very important part of the Plan both due to the magnitude of the funds and their incidence in key sectors. such as construction and transport, about 17,000 million euros. And its execution is progressing at a good pace, since more than 8,000 million euros have been mobilized or processed in 2021.
Grants to decarbonize professional transport
He then referred that 900 million have already been distributed to the autonomous communities and aid amounting to 1,000 million has been summoned to municipalities and before the end of this month, the regulation of a new transfer of 400 million in grants to decarbonize professional road transport. It will be about grants that will be convened by the autonomous communities to transform passenger and freight transport fleets.
Likewise, in the case of housing, more than 1,150 million have been distributed to the communities within the rehabilitation program for economic and social recovery in residential settings. And in 2022 another 1,000 million will be transferred for the construction of houses.
Raquel Sánchez also indicated that the companies of the Mitma group are taking steps to facilitate recovery. Among them, she mentioned that the ENAIRE rate will be maintained until 2024 below the 2019 levels, which were already the lowest in the last 10 years and among the most competitive in Europe.