The Efficient Island was presented as a model of collaboration in all areas: collaboration between neighbors, because it involved an entire Eixample island, and collaboration between individuals and administrations. The project promoted the rehabilitation and energy efficiency of the buildings and the programs and subsidies of the ministry, the Generalitat and the City Council allowed the works to be carried out with significant savings for the owners. The Habitat Group led the initiative and set in motion a gear that is now about to collapse: “Everything depends on the pending contributions from the Generalitat”, says the general director of Illa Eficient-Habitat Futura, Cèlia Galera.
“The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the City Council made their respective contributions, but the Generalitat has not yet,” maintains Galera. As established in the Illa Eficient master plan, presented seven years ago, the residents assumed the cost of 50% of the works and the other half was assumed by the administrations, 60% by the Generalitat and 40% Barcelona City Council. And in this initial plan, half of what the Generalitat contributed was subsidized by the ministry. “The accumulated figure of what the Generalitat should contribute now amounts to almost one million euros”, assures Galera. In the master plan, the global investment in the eight blocks of the first phase initially amounted to almost four million euros.
This situation endangers all the actions pending in this first phase of the island, comprised between Gran Via, Viladomat, Diputació and Calabria. And, of course, the continuation of the project in the rest of the buildings, 22 in total. “It’s been a year since we unsuccessfully appealed to the Generalitat to assume the commitments it acquired”, he adds.
According to the Ministry of Land, the actions planned for the Illa Eficient project were included in the housing plan, “which is governed by strict rules that cannot be changed or expanded, and currently the plan does not provide for some of the actions that are ‘have done and which have been absorbed by the Next Generation funds”. The ministry is studying “whether the commitments of old departments can be adapted to the new legal conditions”. He also adds that since there are no budgets, there is no immediate departure planned.
Pending the resolution of the Territory’s legal services, the concern of the Habitat Group and the neighbors is increasing. “One of the singularities of this project, which was carried out in the form of a cooperative, is that individuals and administrations went together; who will now assume the pending costs? This is not what we agreed with the Generalitat”, insists Galera.
