Mayor Jaume Collboni hopes to have the necessary support this autumn to review one of the most controversial measures of all those implemented during the previous mandate. It is about the obligation to dedicate 30% of each promotion to social housing. The socialist leader already made it clear during the electoral campaign. In his opinion, this initiative is not having the expected results in principle, it is actually discouraging private initiative. Yesterday, at the “Barcelona, ??new stage” conference, as part of a new edition of Foros de Vanguardia, at the MGS auditorium in Barcelona, ??the new mayor detailed his plans on this matter for the first time.
Collboni assured that what Barcelona needs to overcome its serious problems of access to housing is a large public-private investment that multiplies the offer. And in order to facilitate this large investment, it aims to “monetize” the controversial obligation in order to establish a public fund dedicated to the purchase of plots of land and also of buildings that will allow to increase the public housing stock in the most consolidated parts of the city.
Collboni also assured that his initiative is in any case not a simple thought, that he already consulted it, debated it and discussed it with promoters and builders, that the sector is in agreement with this reform. In reality, at least this was what the mayor implied, the last step is to gather the necessary political support to push it forward at the municipal meeting.
The new mayor hopes to receive the support of both the supporters of the original idea and its detractors. At the end of the day, who can be against a rule aimed at alleviating one of the most serious complaints in Barcelona? The problem is that at the moment the political climate in the city is a bit tense, both to the left and to the right of the mayor. So Collboni avoided indicating in which municipal meeting he plans to raise the issue. He trusted everything in the fall, which is still quite far away. Let’s see if then the resentments are already more reduced. The mayor also recalled that he has already signed the decree to declare Barcelona a tight housing market area.
Collboni also has the feeling that Barcelona has not had a voice and has not played the leading role that corresponds to it as a capital when it comes to facing crucial debates regarding large infrastructures. To reverse this situation, it will set up an infrastructure advisory council in which it aims to bring together engineers, urban planners, economists and experts in the field to help the municipal government establish the city’s position in the matter with an eye on the horizon of in the year 2030. We are mainly talking about railway infrastructure, the port and the airport, but also about issues such as energy, water, telecommunications and even data management. The mayor has already given instructions to the chief engineer, Oriol Altisench, to be in charge of choosing the professionals who can contribute the most to this new consulting forum.
“My commitment as mayor is to contribute to not losing more opportunities and that, when the mayor speaks, he speaks from the best of the city and the country”, assured Collboni. The infrastructure advisory council will join another veteran debate table related to the matter such as the Pact for Mobility, created in the time of Joan Clos, in which in the last term poisoned debates have taken place between defenders and detractors of the tram, bike lanes and low-emission zones. Based on the contributions made by experts of different sensibilities, Collboni wants to show his “willingness to favor agreements to develop infrastructures and desynchronize stuck debates”. In this sense, he made clear his favorable position to the expansion of El Prat and to all projects that help to “reconnect an international and internationalized city like Barcelona with the rest of the metropolitan area, Catalonia, Spain and the world”.
In addition to reconnecting, Collboni repeatedly used the concept of “reassess”, attributable to all the projects that have generated controversy, such as the bike lane on Via Augusta and the shared bus-bike lane on Via Laietana. It can even be applied to the cleaning contract, which is not working as the new mayor would like. Next week will bring together the concessionaires to try to face with cleaning guarantees a summer that will experience intense use of public space.
What the new mayor has no doubts about is the connection of the tram along Diagonal, regarding which he reaffirmed his desire to finish the works connecting Trambesòs and Trambaix, although he acknowledges that he will have to seek the agreements necessary politicians in the plenary, which precisely coincide with the progressive forces to which he constantly appeals to reach specific agreements that allow him to govern with guarantees. In this way, a new stage in Barcelona’s municipal politics begins, that of pacts and agreements, with various parties. Dialogue will be more prominent than ever.
