Catalonia wants to shield its rent regulation in the new housing law

Pedro Sanchez and Pablo Iglesias They agreed to regulate rents exactly one year ago and conspired to do so in less than 90 days. In a negotiation that they ended up closing hand in hand, they agreed to promote a housing law in Spain, the first in history. The schedule and its clashes exceeded their time goal. With ten months of delay and already without Churches in the Executive, the Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday a preliminary project that will be processed urgently. Enough delay already accumulates behind his back. The government wants the rule to reach Congress before the end of 2021 to start its parliamentary path. Beyond criticism -that there are of all colors-, there are also those who see an opportunity, as long as there is “political will“. The Generalitat, which in public threatens to appeal the law to the Constitutional Court if it invades powers, wants to protect its own rental regulation – currently contested – in the state regulation through the amendment process.

The housing law offers, in the eyes of the Government, an option to shield the Catalan norm that regulates the rent of real estate and that was appealed before the Constitutional Court by the Government of Pedro Sanchez. According to sources from the Executiu, the text allows adding, in its parliamentary process, an additional provision that makes explicit the respect for regional norms, in particular, the Catalan because it is anchored on two matters on which Catalonia, by virtue of the 2006 Statute, has exclusive powers. On the one hand, housing and, on the other, urban lease contracts that derive from the Catalan civil code.

Always according to these sources, the inclusion or not of this additional provision depends on the Government “political will”. And that given the strength of competence of the Catalan theses, even a favorable ruling by the Constitutional Court “beyond its composition” is not ruled out. Sources from the Ministry of Housing avoid ruling on how the state law will affect the legislation approved in Catalonia. For the moment, they ask to wait for the TC to resolve the appeal and they do not venture to explain what will happen if both laws coexist. That is still missing. In the Executive they trust to be able to process it urgently once the housing law reaches Congress, but the time horizon they are considering for its final approval is the second half of 2022.

Criticisms and discrepancies

Another thing is the content of the Spanish law. “The good one is ours, which has been running for a year and has shown that it allows income to be frozen“, continue fuetes del Executiu. ERC sources doubted the” effectiveness “of the tax credits promoted by the text of the Executive of Pedro Sánchez for small owners who lower prices, as well as the action on large property holders who, According to the Republicans, by itself it does not allow the market to be regulated, and they conclude that the Government’s law is “without a doubt” the one that United Podemos wanted.

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However, the rule, the focus of conflict for almost a year between socialists and purple, has taken its first step in the midst of the open crisis within the Government due to the repeal of the labor reform. The bridges are still standing. Even so, the announcement about the approval of the draft reflected the tensions that are being experienced these days in the Executive. The Minister of Transport, Rachel Sanchez, was in charge of publicizing the norm, while the person in charge of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, she was not called to the press conference, despite being a co-proponent. This did not prevent the leader of Podemos from getting ahead of her partner with a video posted on social networks to defend the text. Something that upset the socialists.

The leaders of the PP did not share Belarra’s satisfaction. In the absence of a year for the rule to be approved, the spokesman for the popular, José Luís Martínez-AlmeidaHe reiterated that he will not use it. The conservative regional presidents, either. Thus, the law will have almost no effect in all these territories.