White smoke. Three years later, the Housing Law is unlocked after an agreement between the Government and its partners ERC and Bildu. In the Executive they had the conviction days ago that, finally, it was a matter of days to unravel the norm and that the only thing missing was the conformity of their Catalan and Basque partners. In this final stretch, the main leaders of all parties were involved, which denoted that it was in the final stretch, closing the fringes. In La Moncloa it was accelerated because there was interest in having it approved before the 28-M election campaign, since it allowed them to present important political ammunition for the elections.
Optimism had settled among the coalition partners. Now there was the awareness that it was the final one. In fact, and as this newspaper has reported, in the last hours what was being settled was “leaving the focus to ERC and Bildu”. That is, allowing the governance partners, who have played a key role in the negotiation, and whose votes are vital to approve the regulation, who could capitalize on the announcement. From this Thursday it was planned to be so.
And it has been ERC and Bildu, from the Congress of Deputies, who have presented the agreement and have made it profitable. All agreed and planned.
One of the points that has caused friction between the government partners and with the governance partners has been the cap on rental prices. Finally, the agreement reached establishes that the CPI is eliminated as a reference index for the annual update of the rent of the contracts. What is reflected is that during 2023 the 2% limit in force will be applied -a consequence of the anti-crisis plan approved by the Government-, while in 2024 it will be 3% and from now on a new index will be created in these terms, ” more stable and lower than the evolution of the CPI, which caps the increases in income for annual renewal”, picks up the text that ERC and Bildu have presented.
Regarding stressed areas, it is left to the communities or town halls to request the declaration of stressed area, establishing two conditions for this, but only one of them must be met. Thus, the declaration of stressed areas will be declared when one of the two conditions established by the Law is met: that the average cost of the mortgage or rent plus basic expenses and supplies exceeds 30% of the average income of the homes, or that the purchase or rental price of the home has increased at least 3 points above the CPI in the five years prior to the declaration of a stressed area.
The machinery had been activated for days. Pedro Sánchez had transferred the order: unblock the Housing Law already in Congress. And those involved have gotten down to work. In the environment of the President of the Government, the conviction that it was going to be approved had been installed for days and they had no doubts that it would be before the municipal and regional elections of 28-M.
The determination of La Moncloa has been one of the keys to the unlocking. Decide that it should come out yes or yes, entrusting this final part of the negotiation to the Ministry of Transport, with the participation of the Economy. They took the reins in the final part of the negotiation and intensified the negotiations with ERC and Bildu after Sánchez’s order. That it was in the final stretch was indicated by the participation in them of the main leaders of each party. For example, Gabriel Rufián, on behalf of the Catalan republicans, has been very much on top in this final part.
The unblocking of the Housing Law supposes, on the one hand, a lever for the Government in the face of the electoral campaign, selling the first rule of democracy on housing, electoral ammunition in short; and on the other to unite the coalition, which is going through difficult times, with the serious crisis due to the reform of the law of only yes is yes as a backdrop. In fact, the approval in Congress of the Housing Law would cover the “noise” that will be generated again next week with the vote on the reform of the only yes is yes, which will once again show the division and clashes in the coalition.
The path of this norm began in October 2020 when Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias agreed to regulate the rent in four months and thus save the first Budgets of the coalition. Since then, the standard once again served as a bargaining chip for Public Accounts at the end of 2021; Two Transport Ministers have passed, Iglesias left the Government… and the text continued, until now, without being validated in Congress.
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