PEMB co-organizes a workshop to lay the foundations for a coordinated policy at the metropolitan level to ensure the right to housing in all municipalities

The event began with the intervention of the general coordinator of the PEMB, Oriol Estela Barnet, who highlighted the need for a metropolitan perspective in local housing plans, understanding that the metropolitan region of Barcelona is an interconnected territory. He stressed the importance of working from the bottom up, adapting the proposals to local realities but with a shared metropolitan vision. He also stressed that this perspective requires "political commitment, shared tools and spaces for collaboration to make it effective".

For his part, Joan Ramon Riera, housing commissioner of the Barcelona City Council, emphasised the need to build a community of rights and duties in the metropolitan region to guarantee equitable access to housing. He pointed out that the Territorial Sectoral Housing Plan (PTSH) establishes principles of solidarity, but it is necessary to work in specific scenarios. In this regard, he stressed that the metropolitan perspective will be one of the cross-cutting axes of the new Barcelona Local Housing Plan 2026-2033, which is in the process of being drawn up.

The event, which took place at the Canódromo-Ateneo de Innovación Democrática y Digital, was also attended by Jordi Bosch Meda, Deputy Director General of Urban Habitat and Rehabilitation of the Generalitat de Catalunya, who presented the guidelines of the Sectoral Territorial Housing Plan (PTSH) for municipalities with a strong and accredited high demand for housing (AFDA). which are mainly concentrated in the metropolitan region. He remarked that in addition to the Urban Solidarity Objective, according to which these municipalities must have 15% of the main homes allocated to social policies, social rent must also be increased to 9% of the entire housing stock. He insisted on the need for a greater deployment of joint planning in the metropolitan region to guarantee an equitable distribution of social housing.

The head of the housing office of the PDUM-AMB drafting service, Alexandra Quesada Serrano, recalled that the Metropolitan Urban Master Plan (PDUM) has an urban planning perspective but not directly on housing, and that metropolitan planning must be better coordinated. He defended the need for a Metropolitan Housing Plan for the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona that defines shared objectives and common methodologies between municipalities. He also pointed out that urban regeneration  areas must be a priority and that work must be done to increase and distribute affordable housing equitably.

"The housing crisis in the metropolitan region of Barcelona requires coordinated and strategic solutions, as residential and mobility dynamics transcend administrative limits," explained Luisa F. Pinto, member of the PEMB technical office. The also referent of the Adequate Housing mission of the Metropolitan Commitment 2030 has emphasized the need to reduce inequalities in access to housing, and to equate local responses to demand, which varies greatly according to the capacity of the municipality, generating segregation phenomena on a metropolitan scale.

He recalled that the objective of the Metropolitan Commitment 2030 has focused especially on the rental market, where the economic overload of households is more severe than in other types of tenure. The milestone is to ensure that the population of the metropolitan region of Barcelona that is overburdened by rent and essential supplies costs is less than 30% by 2030. To achieve this, he has placed the measures included in the strategic plan such as the creation of a single registry of applicants for protected housing, the extension of the public-private housing operator and a comprehensive energy rehabilitation plan, among others. According to Pinto, only with a shared metropolitan strategy will it be possible to effectively address housing challenges and guarantee equitable solutions for all citizens regardless of the municipality of residence.

In this line, he has assured that a future Metropolitan Housing Plan should guarantee an effective fit between scales, ensuring that the guidelines of the Metropolitan Urban Master Plan (PDUM) that are appropriate are applicable to the entire region and that the Local Housing Plans (PLH) are adapted to the new milestones of the Urban Solidarity Objective (OSU). considering the capacity of each municipality to develop them. It must also prioritise the reduction of residential segregation, establishing coordination mechanisms between municipalities to avoid inequalities and favour social and affordable housing policies. To make this possible, he explained, it is necessary to promote the generation of new capacities, taking advantage of existing structures such as Housing Metropolis Barcelona (HMB), IMPSÒL, the Metropolitan Housing Consortium (CMH) or the Metropolitan Network for Residential Inclusion (XMIR) and exploring whether they can be scalable or shared.

In the same way, the reference in housing issues has considered it "essential" to find the balance between coordinated metropolitan management and municipal proximity, preventing supra-municipal governance from distancing decision-making from the territory.

In the same vein, Núria Bofarull Montull, head of the drafting team of the Barcelona Local Housing Plan 2025-2032, also explained how this plan incorporates a metropolitan perspective, since residential dynamics go beyond administrative borders, in a context in which all municipalities want to respond to the same problems within a very similar legal and economic context.. He explained that many housing policies could be transferred to the whole region and that the PDUM reinforces the need for a Metropolitan Housing Plan. "We must combine knowledge and energy to find innovative answers and avoid residential segregation," he said.

Finally, he stressed that the objectives of the Plan must be clear and based on co-responsibility, avoiding impositions and promoting cooperation between municipalities to achieve concrete results in affordable and inclusive housing. "A metropolitan housing policy will allow us to go further, with more tools and better worked," he added.

All the interventions have agreed to highlight:

• The need for metropolitan housing governance, to overcome the current administrative fragmentation and move towards metropolitan coordination to ensure more effective and equitable policies.
• Housing as a right and shared responsibility: it is necessary to create a community of rights and duties in the field of housing, avoiding comparative grievances between municipalities and promoting policies based on co-responsibility.
• A Metropolitan Housing Plan as an essential tool as it could help to establish shared objectives, avoid contradictions between municipalities and promote the rehabilitation and construction of affordable housing in a coordinated manner.
• Guarantee an equitable distribution of social rent: it is necessary to increase the social rental stock, especially in municipalities in the metropolitan area, and distribute it equitably to avoid the concentration of vulnerability in certain areas.
• The need for a supra-municipal perspective in urban planning: residential dynamics cannot be understood only on a local scale, since mobility, work and the price of housing are interconnected throughout the metropolitan region.

The common points of the interventions have been transferred to the debate by axes that have taken place in the 3 workshops that have debated the following issues:

Axis 1: Expand the affordable housing stock

As a result of the conversation, it has been concluded that supra-municipal coordination is necessary to mobilise empty housing and housing for tourist uses, integrate local rental pools with the third sector and expand the HPO stock through planning and promotion policies on a metropolitan scale. It is also proposed to regulate shared housing for vulnerable groups. The main challenge is to achieve political consensus to promote these policies.

Axis 2: Addressing residential vulnerability

A diversity of profiles at risk has been detected, from people with mental health problems to families who are left in limbo due to income level, and cannot access either market rent or subsidized housing. A shared database is proposed  to carry out preventive monitoring of households in vulnerable situations, more channels of dialogue between social services and housing and a more coordinated management of aid and evictions.

Axis 3: Maintaining, rehabilitating and improving the housing stock

A metropolitan management of the rehabilitation is called for, based on the good experience of the Conservation and Rehabilitation Areas (ACR) of the Metropolitan Housing Consortium, making better use of European funds. It is also proposed to recover the Neighbourhood Law to prevent gentrification and to provide resources for rehabilitation policies when the Next Generation funds end. Promoting policies to support communities of neighbors is considered a key action to facilitate the conservation and improvement of housing.