Today the Government has approved the modification of the Land and Urban Rehabilitation law with the aim of streamlining urban plans and “providing legal certainty”, as defended by the promoter of the law, the Ministry of Housing. It is the second time that the Council of Ministers approves this law. It already did so in December 2022, but the initiative declined due to the early call for general elections. The real estate sector is impatiently awaiting this new regulation.
The changes in the Land Law are reborn with disagreements within the coalition Government. Although the socialist area has defended today that this is a “demand from the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces and numerous city councils”, Sumar has been expressing its opposition to some modifications to the regulations for a few days.
The main measure of the draft law that will begin its parliamentary processing is the reinforcement of urban plans. According to Housing, these plans are “an essential tool for the development of towns and cities with sustainability criteria, housing policy, job creation and, in general, the national economy.” For this reason, the changes proposed by the Government seek to provide “stability, certainty and legal security” to the sector.
The Ministry of Housing proposes that small errors or correctable defects do not paralyze urban plans. Specifically, the socialist area proposes modifying the regime of nullities and voidability of urban projects so that they are not paralyzed due to minor defects. According to Housing, the aim is to “identify the possible defects that could lead to its declaration of illegality.” Minister Isabel Rodríguez even spoke a few days ago about “making urban planning more possible and less regulated.”
“Other formal defects that the instruments of territorial and urban planning may incur may be corrected, with retroaction to the appropriate procedural moment, in a procedure instructed for this purpose by the acting administration,” states the regulations that come out today from the Council. of Ministers.
The Sumar area in the coalition already raised its opposition to the draft bill in the General Commission of Secretaries of State and Undersecretaries held last Thursday. Today, in the Council of Ministers, he presented “observations” to the text that he will replicate during the parliamentary process in the form of amendments. According to Sumar, the PSOE proposal “does not adequately respond to the objective declared by the rule of reinforcing legal certainty in the field of urban planning.”
Firstly, to add the regulation proposed by Housing for the nullities and voidability of urban projects, it could give rise to “irregularities”. “That regime is very questionable and should remain unchanged,” he says. Furthermore, for the area directed by Yolanda Díaz it is essential to maintain public action in urban planning, something that, according to the socialist proposal, would be put at risk, Sumar denounces.
Despite the cases of corruption related to urban planning, Sumar reasons, “on countless occasions public action has served to paralyze oversized plans with great social and environmental impact, which neglected the protection of the coastline, the public hydraulic domain or the public spaces. protected by omitting or ignoring sectoral reports called to ensure environmental protection.”
“For this reason, the need to restrict access to public action is not shared and it is considered more appropriate to maintain it in its current terms and not limit the possibility that citizens currently have to demand the expulsion from the legal system of illegal urban planning plans. in defense of general interests,” adds the minority area in the coalition.
Sumar also does not share the deadlines that the Housing proposal establishes for the indirect challenge of territorial and urban planning instruments. From their point of view, they should be expanded.
