The Sabadell City Council has reduced the first technical report from six and a half months to two when applying for a license for major works. In the case of licenses for minor works, the management term has been cut in half, from two months to one. As explained yesterday by the mayor, Marta Farrés (PSC), this change is due to the fact that, in the last four years, the number of municipal technicians working on licenses has gone from six to eleven, electronic administration has been enhanced to speed up the system and follow the file online and the same criteria are followed in the process. The improvement is evident in relation to the last few years. In May 2019, they had to wait three times as long, up to nine months, with a volume of files similar to the current one, according to the technicians.
Farrés launched a message of optimism for future investors. “For now, we are among the most agile councils in processing licenses. Before, we had a competitive disadvantage and companies didn’t look at us. Now they come to look for us regularly”, both to build new homes and businesses, she assured proudly.
In 2023, 404 licenses were requested, of which 209 were for major works, and the rest, minor, which involved 3,700 communications. The final license depends, to a large extent, on the quality of the project, according to experts in the sector. Last year, 412 licenses were granted, some from 2022.
“There are many councils in Vallès that are not as fast as the one in Sabadell”, detailed the spokesperson of the College of Technical Architects. “In many cases we average between 8 and 9 months – even a year – to process the first technical report. This must be reversed” because it made the construction process more difficult.
Among other improvements, the Licensing Board has been set up, formed by the municipal managers of the Town Planning area of ??the Consistory, the professional associations of architects, technical architects, engineers, the Builders’ Guild of Sabadell and Comarca, the Apialia real estate association and the Sabadell Bar Association. The aim is “to exchange information on the projects that are being considered and, therefore, the interested party does not have to submit the documentation again”. Farrés said: “We had a plug and, together, we unstuck it”.
