The government and the social housing sector announced Thursday, October 5, that they had concluded an agreement providing 1.2 billion euros to renovate the social housing stock, without however having reached the major pact of confidence desired by the government, which would have released the slump sector.

The day before, the Social Union for Housing (USH), the confederation of social landlords, approved a list of proposals which were only sent to it on Sunday by the office of the minister responsible for housing, Patrice Vergriete.

“Today, you are offering us support for the ecological transition of 1.2 billion over three years, improvement of production loans of 8 billion, maintenance of a PTZ [zero interest loan] for social access: your proposal is serious. We accept responsibility,” declared the president of the USH, Emmanuelle Cosse, during the closing plenary of the association’s congress, which was held on Thursday in Nantes.

The fund proposed by the State, endowed with 1.2 billion euros spread over three years, “is intended to support a target of around 120,000 energy renovations per year in social housing and to gradually increase to 150,000” , promised Patrice Vergriete. This “agreement marks the common commitment of the State and the HLM movement to jointly meet this double challenge of renovation and production,” he added.

This budgetary commitment should involve a government amendment to the 2024 finance bill. It should therefore allow landlords to meet the timetable imposed by law to eliminate thermal sieves.

Production of housing, more advantageous loans, renewable energies

The Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations must also increase its support for the sector, offer more advantageous loans, or release, with the Ecological Transition Agency (Ademe), subsidized loans for the connection of buildings to urban heat networks and the development of renewable energies in the social park.

In total, these advantageous loans represent the equivalent of a saving of 650 million euros for social landlords, according to Emmanuelle Cosse.

Other more technical demands from the sector were taken up, such as maintaining the zero-interest loan in its current conditions for social access to property, while it must be tightened for the general public. The agreement is rather surprising as discussions have been dragging on for months, with the sector regularly criticizing the government for making budgetary savings to its detriment.

On the other hand, the pact of confidence that the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, had hoped for when she started at Matignon is not on the agenda. “We asked for a lot of billions, we have a few million… which is therefore good news, not enough, but good news,” summarized the president of the federation of private social landlords, social enterprises for housing, Valérie Fournier.

The USH, said Emmanuelle Cosse, would have liked more long-term commitments from the executive, which would not force it to renegotiate every year. She points to another gap, the absence of measures to revive the production of social housing, in free fall: there should be fewer than 85,000 authorizations for the creation of social housing in 2023. However, according to a study commissioned by the ‘USH, 198,000 new social housing units should be produced per year to respond to major demographic trends and reduce poor housing.

The number of households waiting for social housing has never been higher: 2.42 million, including 1.63 million for a first allocation.