a european agenda for social housing

A EUROPEAN AGENDA FOR SOCIAL HOUSING

EUROPEAN UNION

Committee of the Regions

PES Group Secretariat Committee of the Regions Rue Belliard 101, oce JDE 7035 1040 BRUSSELS General Phone : +32 2 282 22.23 General Fax : +32 2 282 20 69 [email protected] www.pes.cor.europa.eu Luxembourg: Publications Oce of the European Union, 2012 ISBN 978-92-895-0569-7 doi:10.2863/45977 European Union, 2012 Printed in Luxembourg


EUROPEAN UNION

Committee of the Regions

CONTENTS

FOREWORD .....................................................................................................................................4 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 10 Decent housing for all, a political priority for the Group of European Socialists in the Committee of the Regions ...................................................................................................................................................10 PART I ............................................................................................................................................ 13 Setting a European agenda for social housing ........................................................................................................13 Aordable and universally accessible housing for economic stability ............................................16 Better governance for aordable and universally accessible housing ............................................24 Aordable and universally accessible housing for social inclusion ...................................................30 Smart growth for aordable and universally accessible housing .......................................................44 Universally accessible energy-ecient housing for sustainable environment ..........................50

PART II ........................................................................................................................................... 59 Provision of social housing across the EU ...................................................................................................................59 Austria.......................................................................................................................................................................................60 Belgium....................................................................................................................................................................................64 Czech Republic ...................................................................................................................................................................70 France .......................................................................................................................................................................................76 Germany..................................................................................................................................................................................85 Italy .............................................................................................................................................................................................94 Luxembourg ......................................................................................................................................................................100 Malta .......................................................................................................................................................................................104 Poland....................................................................................................................................................................................109 Spain .......................................................................................................................................................................................115 United Kingdom .............................................................................................................................................................120 PART III ........................................................................................................................................ 127 Europa Habitabilis: housing through the lens of Loc Delvaulx .................................................................127 Brussels .................................................................................................................................................................................130 Budapest ..............................................................................................................................................................................139 Dunkirk..................................................................................................................................................................................155 Lisbon ....................................................................................................................................................................................166 Malm ...................................................................................................................................................................................178 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... 187


FOREWORDDear friends, Decent and aordable housing for all is a key preoccupation for the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions. This is why we put housing at the heart of our 201011 campaign calling for More than just a roof over my head. Housing is a precondition for social participation, for integration into society and for contributing to the development of a fair society. We are not settling for just a roof over someones head, but are urging for decent housing, which allows people to live in dignity. The PES Group in the Committee of the Regions brings together locally and regionally elected socialists, social democrats and progressives, who have experience in the provision of housing on a daily basis. We are also all too familiar with diculties created by conicting EU legislation in other policy areas, creating obstacles for established schemes at local or regional level to support decent, sustainable social housing. That is why we decided to make our call for a coherent European framework and a genuine European agenda for social housing the focus of our campaign. We complemented our action by bringing the issue on the political agenda of the CoR through the own-initiative opinion by Alain Hutchinson, which received overwhelming support by the institution. Moreover, our contribution to the Convention of the Party of European Socialists, held in November 2011, consisted of a plethora of activities revolving around the theme of social housing and sending a loud and clear message that there is an urgent need for action at European level.

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FOREWORD

These are all small but important steps towards raising awareness about the crucial importance that such a basic thing as housing has for citizens. With this publication, we want to lay another brick in this building project and showcase what others have done in their respective regions and cities. Together, we have to continue this work to make sure that the European construction gets a real housing dimension at last. I wish you an interesting read. With fraternal greetings, Karl-Heinz Lambertz President of the PES Group in the CoR

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A home is much more than just a place to live. It is vital for peoples mental and physical health, as well as their social integration. Social housing is meant to provide to the neediest members of society the security of a home, and as such it underpins social cohesion and helps people get on in life. The provision of social housing remains crucial for millions of households across the EU, particularly for those hit by the current crisis. Hence, improving the quality of existing housing stock and increasing the number of units available constitute a major challenge. This is why local and regional authorities, those most often responsible for such services, are struggling to deliver under the weight of continuing austerity measures. I am afraid this is not just a nancial issue. It is a matter of political will, or rather, the lack of it. It is up to us, European decision-makers, to make social housing a priority. And it is Europes socialists and social democrats who are taking the lead in an eort to put this crucial issue top of the European political agenda. Our vision for the communities we want to live in translates into decent and aordable housing for all, and that is exactly what we are ghting for.

Mercedes Bresso President of the Committee of the Regions

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FOREWORD

More than ever before, the crisis has highlighted the need for adequate social housing for all. The private and public investment needed to build more social housing across the EU must be mobilised urgently. It is equally important to improve the quality of the existing social housing stock, particularly with regard to reducing energy poverty and increasing energy eciency through refurbishment. This will improve living conditions for tenants and have environmental benets, whilst also creating millions of new jobs. It is also crucial to implement strong social legislation to protect the rights of the tenants of social housing. Problems of social exclusion and at times exploitation, often by loan sharks, must be prevented. A fairer Europe, based on solidarity, has a responsibility to ensure all people have a home, not just as a right, but as a reality. Sergei Stanishev Interim President of the Party of European Socialists

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Housing is a basic human right for everyone, even for those who have very little money. Social housing helps to provide aordable rents for those concerned. This is an important achievement of the 20th century and an integral and indispensable part of our societies.

Martin Schulz President of the European Parliament

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FOREWORD

Almost one third of women throughout the world do not have access to housing or live in inadequate housing conditions. Moreover, although womens labour makes up two thirds of world labour, women own less than 1 % of the land property in the world. Although the picture is less bleak in Europe, women still encounter greater problems in accessing housing, not least due to the persistent gender pay gap and the all too frequent feminisation of poverty. Therefore, a European policy that ensures equal access to decent and aordable housing should also be gender sensitive in order to eectively address the multiple discriminations faced by women. Zita Gurmai MEP (S & D Group), President of PES Women

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INTRODUCTIONDecent housing for all, a political priority for the Group of European Socialists in the Committee of the Regions.Housing as a fundamental human right According to Article 34(3) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, In order to combat social exclusion and poverty, the Union recognises and respects the right to social and housing assistance so as to ensure a decent existence for all those who lack sufcient resources, in accordance with the rules laid down by Community law and national laws and practices. The right to housing constitutes a fundamental right and is also acknowledged as such by the European Social Charter and some national constitutions. However, a lot needs to be done across the EU to ensure access to decent housing for all. The PES Group in the CoR considers that housing is an issue of the utmost importance for long-term economic and social policy beyond the current context of the crisis which is in large part linked to diculties with access to housing. In a European Union where some 44 million citizens are at risk of poverty and where housing often accounts for more than 40 % of a households budget, access to housing should not be seen as an objective in isolation but should become a priority of economic and social policy in the European Union and the Member States. It should be emphasised that housing policy, and social housing in particular, is all too often the indirect result of an overlap between a number of dierent policy areas (competition, single market, structural funds, social inclusion policy) rather than a genuine priority. This is why the PES Group has strived to help provide the impetus needed for a European agenda for social housing, by making the voice of the local and regional authorities heard in the political discussion at EU level.

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INTRODUCTION

The bursting of the housing bubble: some facts and gures Locally and regionally elected socialists and social democrats are committed to promoting a social mix and preventing speculation on the housing market. This is, however, a challenging task. Although speculative bubbles are not uncommon, the magnitude and global scale of the rise in housing costs in the wake of the economic and nancial crisis has no historical precedent. In Europe, Member States have not all been aected in the same way and their housing markets are radically dierent. However, in all but a handful of countries, the cost of housing has risen rapidly and now represents a considerable share of the household budget for Europes low-income families. The following facts and gures are far from reassuring. Between 1995 and 2008, real house prices had nearly tripled in Ireland, had multiplied by about two and a half in the United Kingdom and had approximately doubled in nine other OECD countries. Over the same period the aordability (price to income) ratio reached historic highs (levels never previously attained), exceeding 150 in seven countries (with 100 corresponding to the normal value of an aordable housing market). Finally, average household debt, of which mortgages are the main constituent, represented about 1 year of household disposable income in 1995. By 2000, debt had risen to about 120 % of this amount and in 2007 it was close to 170 %.

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The way forward With increasing diculties in accessing housing, it is not surprising that the demand for social housing is on the rise. The pressure is particularly felt by local and regional authorities, which, in many cases, are responsible for formulating and implementing social housing policy, regulating access to decent housing and inspecting and maintaining housing standards. Moreover, they are increasingly aiming at housing that is sustainable both environmentally and socially. Given that social housing is at the intersection of social, environmental and economic concerns, it is aected by the policies developed in these areas at EU level. Therefore, a policy that would address this burning issue at European level is imperative. The contributions that follow conrm this urgent call.

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PART ISetting a European agenda for social housing


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INTRODUCTION

At a time when the full force of the crisis has hit millions of Europeans, driven from their homes because they cannot keep up their payments, when hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens live in unacceptable, precarious conditions, when there is a scandalous spread in homelessness, it is high time that social housing policies were elaborated at European level. The PES Group in the Committee of the Regions has armed its call for a European agenda for social housing in an own-initiative report, approved by an overwhelming majority of the assembly of the Committee of the Regions (available at http://bit.ly/socialhousing-cor-en). The report sums up the scattered European policies which, directly or indirectly, have a bearing on housing policies. It critically addresses decisions which, by their very nature, can help or hinder local or regional initiatives aiming to provide accommodation for all European citizens. Decent and aordable housing for all men and women is a crucial issue that cannot be resolved unless the attention of EU authorities is at last drawn to this alarming socioeconomic phenomenon. Alain Hutchinson Member of the Brussels-Capital Regional Parliament Member of the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions and rapporteur of the own-initiative opinion Towards a European agenda for social housing

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Aordable and universally accessible housing for economic stability

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AFFORDABLE AND UNIVERSALLY ACCESSIBLE HOUSING FOR ECONOMIC STABILITY

It is necessary to avoid housing bubbles forming in future, due to their impact on both social and nancial stability. In this regard, the European Commissions new proposed rules for a single market for mortgages, which extend to the period before the signature of the contract and aim to create an adapted framework for market actors involved in the granting of loans, should provide better protection for consumers, especially for low-income households, without making it impossible for them to access housing. Models for (supported and monitored) access to social housing already exist, and form an integral part of social housing policy that this new directive must not cut back. The economic imbalances caused by the prohibitive cost of housing have a signicant impact on household consumption patterns. Low-income households in Europe spend on average 40 % of their income on housing and heating, and this percentage is increasing steadily. Member States should therefore ensure that all citizens can aord housing by basing rent increases on an objective system which ensures moderate increases in property prices and adapting tax policy to limit speculation. Investment in social housing is to be supported, and therefore risk assessments for residential property investment should take account of the specic nature of social housing, which does not present the same risks as the rest of the real estate sector; The European Investment Bank (EIB) needs to increase its investment in this sector considerably, as high-quality, energy-ecient and aordable housing is a form of infrastructure for local economic development, particularly in those Member States where there is no state housing bank. The EIB also needs to improve the terms for the loans issued, taking into account the particular need to establish a signicant rental housing bank in some regions, in order to meet the requirements of the neediest members of the population who have no way of becoming property owners.

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Stephen Hughes was born in Sunderland (UK) in 1952. He attended Leeds University and Newcastle Polytechnic where he was awarded the Diploma in Municipal Administration (DMA). Before being elected for the rst time to the European Parliament in 1984, he was a local government ocer. He has in the past served as both constituency secretary and election agent on behalf of the Labour Party. Since 1984, Stephen Hughes has served as Member of the European Parliament. Being very close to the trade union movement, the focus of his work has always been on better rights and protection for workers. As an MEP, he has produced reports on a number of subjects related to health and safety at work, young people and pregnant women at work, working time and physical agents. Stephen Hughes was elected Deputy Leader of the EPs Group of Socialists and Democrats in July 2009 and holds the employment and social aairs portfolio, with responsibility for economic and social policy, the internal market, equality and culture.

Stephen Hughes MEP Vice-President of the S & D Group, responsible for economic and social model policy

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Aordable and universally accessible housing is essential for both economic stability and economic growth. Grant Shapps, the UKs Conservative Housing Minister, told the British Home Builders Federation at a meeting in May 2011 that Getting house-building going is essential to increasing the pace of economic growth. It is perhaps not surprising therefore that as economic growth continues to atline in the UK we see a growing crisis in housing. The number of overcrowded households in Britain has grown from 526 000 in 2006 to 630 000 in 2010. There are 10 000 homeless households and the number is rising. Around 50 000 families are living in temporary accommodation. To make matters worse, the supply of housing is set to fall woefully short of demand during the coalitions spending review period, which will take us through to March 2015. The government says it will deliver 170 000 new aordable homes over a 4-year period. The housing charity Shelter estimates that at least 97 000 aordable homes need to be completed annually to keep pace with demand. So while we should be building almost 400 000 new aordable homes over that 4-year period we will deliver, at best, 170 000, thus adding still more to socially corrosive overcrowding and homelessness. In reality even that target of 170 000 seems hopelessly optimistic given the level of spending commitment. Now, I recognise that the correlation between these statistics and growth is complex and indirect, but there is no doubt that these obvious failures in the UK housing market will act as a drag anchor on the prospects for economic growth.

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Residents, families and individuals living in inadequate housing conditions and with the emotional and social turmoil they create face very real barriers in remaining connected to the world of work. For those who overcome the barriers and nd work, these adverse factors in their lives will inevitably mean that they are less than optimal members of the workforce. In a video shown at the annual conference of the European Federation of Building and Wood Workers, the trade union federation covering the construction sector, I pointed out that in the UK alone we should be building almost 400 000 new sustainable and aordable homes over the next 4 years. Imagine if we did that. What would the implications be for broader society and for the economy? Well, 400 000 households would be living healthier and more secure lives in accommodation that would be far better in terms of environmental performance. And 400 000 new households would be in the market for fridges, washing machines, carpets, furniture all of the things that support modern family living generating a surge in demand across the economy. This would not only boost construction employment by tens of thousands directly, but also jobs in a whole range of other sectors. Crucially these would be greener jobs too, given the sustainability conditions built into the provision of new housing stock and all of the appliances that go into a new home. Further prospects for boosting green employment can also be found in the energy-related renovation of social housing. The problem is that the EUs macroeconomic policy is recklessly and completely focused upon debt and decit reduction, scal consolidation and austerity. Even though the alarm bells of falling growth rates are ringing out, they carry on regardless. These ill-founded obsessions are squeezing out the possibility of the types of sensible public investment that I have been describing.

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The S & D Group in the European Parliament has produced under my leadership a well thought out alternative to these policies. It calls for an employment and growth pact, allowing scope for maintaining sensible levels of public investment as well as driving down debt and decits over a more sensible time-frame. It calls for the mutualisation of sovereign debt and the issuance of Eurobonds. It sets out the case for a nancial transaction tax (FTT) and other actions on the revenue side of the balance sheet. And it underlines the need for tougher nancial regulation. At the same time, the provision of accessible and aordable housing has obvious implications for growth and employment, while being important for economic stability. Clear examples of the instability and dysfunction that can develop can be seen in the housing bubbles that developed in Ireland, the UK, Spain, France and Italy in the lead-up to the nancial crisis and the spectacular way in which those bubbles burst once the crisis was upon us. As a result, balance in housing markets is now included as one of the indicators of macroeconomic balance or imbalance in the new macroeconomic surveillance scoreboard which forms an important part of the new European semester. The European Commission proposal on the scoreboard was, incidentally, the only one of the macroeconomic six-pack of proposals that we, the S & D Group, were able to support outright in the vote in the European Parliament, and that was down to the excellent work of our socialist rapporteur, Elisa Ferreira, who, against heavy odds, managed to include a number of real as well as nominal indicators in the text; for example poverty, employment and unemployment. In a nutshell, it goes without saying that aordable and universally accessible housing is essential for both economic stability and economic growth.

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Further reading International Union of Tenants: the Dutch case Tenants campaign against the lower income limit for social housing in the Netherlands Campaign website: http://www.ikwilookwonen.nl The European Commissions decision that social housing needs to be limited to a clearly dened target group of disadvantaged citizens or socially less advantaged groups is heavily criticized by the Dutch Union of Tenants, the Nederlandse Woonbond. In March 2011, the Woonbond launched an Internet portal (http://www.ikwilookwonen.nl) for people who could not nd aordable apartments because of the lower income limit set by the Dutch government as a result of the European Commissions decision. Households with a gross income of between EUR 34 085 (ination indexed in 2012) and EUR 43 000 no longer have access to the aordable housing stock of the Netherlands housing corporations. Private rental market accommodation is too expensive and home ownership is not an option because these people are not suciently solvent for bank mortgages. In February 2012, 4 000 specic complaints from Dutch citizens published on the website were handed over to the Dutch Home Aairs Minister responsible for public housing, Ms Liesbeth Spies. The minister promised the Woonbond activists that she would go back to Brussels and negotiate with the European Commission for a higher income ceiling for social housing in the Netherlands. The Woonbonds position is supported by the housing corporations, the Dutch network of municipalities and the four large cities, Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht.

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Another milestone in the case was the European Parliaments decision of November 2011 on the reform of EU state aid rules on services of general economic interest. The European Parliament states that public services must be of high quality and accessible to all sections of the population, and criticizes the European Commissions restrictive stance in the Dutch case as being at odds with the higher goal of fostering an appropriate social mix and universal access to aordable social housing. IUT is a non-governmental organisation, founded in 1926 in Zrich, Switzerland, whose purpose is to safeguard the interests of tenants and promote aordable, healthy rental housing throughout the world. IUT has consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council and the ECE (Economic Commission for Europe Committee on Housing and Land Management) and participatory status with the Council of Europe.

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Better governance for aordable and universally accessible housing

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BETTER GOVERNANCE FOR AFFORDABLE AND UNIVERSALLY ACCESSIBLE HOUSING

Member States should ensure that the informal meetings of housing ministers continue to act as a forum for exchanging information and improving understanding of national policies and contexts, but also for adopting positions on subjects with a major impact on national housing policy, especially its nancing. Eurostat should be asked to produce a specic Eurobarometer on housing conditions and prices, given the importance of housing in the daily lives of citizens of the European Union. The Eurostat indicators (price, quality) on the housing element of social inclusion should be published regularly so that progress in the eld can be evaluated, and these indicators should be supplemented by regional and local statistics. Social innovation should be supported both by the EU platform against poverty, which is part of the Europe 2020 strategy, and by Horizon 2020, the EUs new framework programme for research and innovation, in order to test new forms of governance for policies aiming to improve access to housing and reduce homelessness. The European Parliaments Urban Housing Intergroup should hold regular meetings with the Committee of the Regions on the housing element of European policies, particularly in terms of urban policy.

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Claire Roumet Secretary-General of Cecodhas (European Liaison Committee for Social Housing)

Claire Roumet graduated in economics, continuing with a postgraduate in European policies at the Strasbourg Institute of Political Studies. She rst worked for the European Womens Lobby, an EU network active in the eld of womens rights. She then worked as an expert on social economy and the development of the European third sector for the European Commission. She currently holds the position of Secretary General of Cecodhas. The committee, a network of national and regional social housing federations gathering 4 500 public, voluntary housing organisations and 28 000 housing cooperatives, works towards a Europe that provides access to decent and aordable housing for all in communities which are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable and where all are enabled to reach their full potential.

Housing policy governance varies according to country, region and housing provider. Every system of delivering aordable housing has been shaped by history and local particularities, however, and each one is aected by European policies over its various stages. Let us look at the social housing sector as a good example of European integration, one which is making slow but steady progress every year. Interestingly, it could be creating opportunities and giving rise to a much more positive framework than we think. We will see, however, that progress has to be made to take forward the European project, which is at stake every day and in which co-production of services and of policies is not the dominant democratic culture of the time.

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Let us consider how housing and European policies interact at each tier of governance: at project, local authority, regional authority and ministry level. This will not be an exhaustive list of the links amongst those levels, but rather of signicant and representative policy developments currently under intense discussion in Brussels. The project to deliver social housing. EU state aid rules apply to any public support received by a provider that might aect competition with other actors. Since the 2005 MontiKroes package, it has been agreed that social housing projects, being a service of general economic interest (SGEI), do not have to give notication of state aid received. However, this non-notication is only possible if the target group of social housing beneciaries is dened as vulnerable. Social housing systems were designed decades ago to complement social welfare systems, which means that some systems are so-called universal systems and some targeted. Some of these systems were therefore not recognised as SGEIs. In the case of the Netherlands and Sweden, governments had to redene their allocation criteria (or in the case of Sweden, stop all state aid to the public housing sector). At city level, the latest EU proposals on energy eciency (energy eciency directive) have a major impact on local authority spending, as the European Commission included an obligation to refurbish 3 % of the public stock annually in its proposal. Publicly owned housing would be included in the obligation, which means massive investment. This proposal is now being negotiated with the European Parliament and the Council. It is not clear what the end result of the process will be, but it will certainly have a considerable impact on the sector.

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At regional level, however, the EU may provide a very interesting framework for the consideration of housing as part of the necessary infrastructure for delivering territorial cohesion and green growth. In its proposals for the future cohesion policy 201420, the European Commission has made investment in housing an eligible expenditure. This constitutes a substantial paradigmatic shift (previously, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) had only two categories of non-eligible expenditure: nuclear energy and housing). Housing refurbishment, especially, is high on the agenda, as at least 20 % of the ERDF should be spent on renewable and energy eciency, but for the rst time, housing is being seen as major social infrastructure and improving living conditions a key target of cohesion policy. Finally, national housing policies. This is a quite unexpected development resulting from the crisis. Housing market imbalances have been and still are at the heart of the nancial and economic crisis. The debt crisis is one aspect of it, but other macroeconomic imbalances will need to be corrected if we want to achieve sustainable growth. Housing has become unaordable for many European households; the level of private debt has reached an unsustainable level; housing markets are speculative and do not match demand, not only at the very end of the market but for the vast majority of needs. This is also the conclusion reached by the Commission in its proposals for strengthened economic surveillance; one of the ten indicators will monitor housing prices. Member States will have to formulate their policies to ensure that housing markets deliver, and the European Commission will evaluate whether the proposed solutions are adequate and sucient. The good news is that the Commission has noted that diversifying housing supply and increasing it substantially and reforming tax incentives for home ownership in most countries is essential. More investment in social and aordable housing is recognised as necessary, therefore, not only for those whose needs we are advocating, but also for stable and economic growth.

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Other policies directly impact upon housing policies. They have been detailed in the Committee of the Regions own-initiative report Towards a EU agenda for social housing, adopted in October 2011. So we still have some political work to do. Cecodhas Housing Europe, The federation of public, cooperative and social housing, is a network of national and regional social housing federations gathering together 4 500 public, voluntary housing organisations and 28 000 housing cooperatives. Together, the 45 members in 19 EU Member States manage 25 million dwellings. Cecodhas members work together for a Europe that provides access to decent and aordable housing for all in communities which are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable and where all are enabled to reach their full potential.

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Aordable and universally accessible housing for social inclusion

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AFFORDABLE AND UNIVERSALLY ACCESSIBLE HOUSING FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION

The European Unions poverty-reduction target for 2020 requires that Member States and local and regional authorities develop ambitious implementation programmes. The housing dimension should be a mainstay of these implementation programmes and be backed up by investments and policies to increase the supply of decent, affordable housing, including both ownership and tenancy. Inadequate housing conditions have a signicant impact on health and providing better housing means that residents do not have to suer the adverse eects of overcrowded, damp, cold and poorly ventilated housing. A lack of housing is a source of both stress and distress, adversely aecting the quality of life, health and wellbeing of individuals, families and society. A solution to the issue of homelessness must be found as a matter of urgency and, to this end, it is necessary to coordinate the application of all policies with an impact on homelessness. A variety of housing solutions need to be developed to meet the burgeoning variety of needs, and an option to bridge between rental and private ownership should be provided, such as cooperatives, shared equity, land trust communities and suchlike. Member States must support local and regional authorities in maintaining and increasing the diversity of the housing supply, taking into account the mechanisms needed to update the housing stock without promoting access to ownership to the detriment of other forms of access to housing. It is important to prevent and reduce harmful dierentiation in residential areas via urban and social policy measures. In addition to the option of using EU structural funds for housing for marginalised groups a measure that should continue in the next programming period as it responds to the imperative that accommodation unt for habitation be eradicated the EU structural funds (European Social Fund (ESF) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)) also need to be better integrated in order to promote sustainable development in disadvantaged areas. The redevelopment of run-down neighbourhoods must not lead to gentrication, and social diversity programmes should be established to promote social cohesion.

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Barbara Steenbergen studied political science at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University of Bonn and obtained a Magister Artium (Master of Arts) in 1995. From 1995 until 2001 she worked in a regional council in North Rhine-Westphalia. She was head of the presidents oce and coordinator for energy policy and international aairs of the Deutsche Mieterbund e.V. (German Union of Tenants) in Berlin from 2001 to 2007. Since 2007 she has been the head of the EU liaison oce of the IUT in Brussels. Since 2009 she has been the co-chair of the European Housing Forum (EHF).

Barbara Steenbergen Head of the EU liaison oce of the International Union of Tenants (IUT)

The right to suitable and high-quality housing at aordable prices is a basic right and should be enshrined in the constitutions of EU Member States and be a fundamental principle of a social Europe. It should also be part of the EU Constitution. Basic social rights are crucial to public acceptance of the European Union. Housing is tremendously important to everyone. It is where people spend much of their lives and serves as the basis for social contact with others. It should not be reduced to its function as a commodity. Housing is always also a social good. Homelessness is one of the most severe forms of exclusion. In Europe, housing and energy costs make up the largest share of household expenditure. On average, Europeans spend 30 % of their income on living costs. In low-income households particularly ones with single parents looking after small children it can be as high as 40 %. Inated rents and constant price hikes entail a massive redistribution of income from the bottom upwards. Around 16 % of Europes population 78 million people is at risk of poverty.

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A fair housing policy promotes home ownership, housing cooperatives and renting in equal measure, and prioritises the needs of residents. Freedom to choose between dierent housing solutions is important. This choice is not currently allowed. In almost all European countries, home ownership is promoted at the expense of other solutions. Rent control and legally enshrined protection against unwarranted eviction are essential to oering real freedom of choice in the housing market. In many countries particularly those in central and eastern Europe tenants are in a precarious legal position. Countries in western and northern Europe could provide assistance in improving legal and contractual frameworks. The prioritisation of home ownership constrains construction of new rental accommodation. The scarcity of aordable rental accommodation particularly in European capitals, economic centres and universities contributes signicantly to the impoverishment of low- and middle-income earners. In northern European countries, state-owned rental accommodation accounts for a considerably higher proportion of the market. The southern and eastern European countries are instead classic property-owning societies. In Spain, home owners make up 78 % of the market. It is a hard and fast rule of housing markets that weaker groups live in inferior accommodation, and stronger groups in superior accommodation. The primary feature of weaker groups is irregular income and short-term, insecure employment contracts. Young people, in particular, count among the weakest groups in the housing market. We need a new social housing subsidy specically for young people. Around 51 million people that is almost half (46 %) of all young people in the EU still live with their parents. The International Union of Tenants (IUT) has made concrete policy recommendations to improve the housing situation of young people (Further reading, page 36).

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Gentrication is a new threat to low- and middle-income households living in city centres. In many cases, gentrication starts with enthusiastic renovation. In 21 European Union and EU candidate countries, the cost of renovation can be passed on to tenants either in full or in part. Energy-ecient housing must not become a privilege of the rich. Public subsidies should serve three ends: security of investment and reliability for landlords; aordability of rents through price indexation; and a basic guarantee that any renovation work will be price-neutral for tenants in terms of the total cost of rent and heating. A dening characteristic of a socially just city is the creation and safeguarding of aordable and adequate accommodation in liveable and safe neighbourhoods. The goal of our advocacy at the European level is to have housing policy recognised as a key pillar of cohesion policy. European structural subsidies, such as the ESF or the ERDF, should be tailored to improve quality of life in residential districts. Public providers of accommodation that are run on a tenant-oriented, non-prot basis play a key role in socially just urban development. EU subsidy programmes should be reoriented so as to encourage more investment in our city districts and neighbourhoods. Privatisation and capitalisation of the public housing stock are an increasing threat across Europe. Financial instruments (e.g. real estate investment trusts) that simplify trading in large amounts of property and thereby encourage speculation should be tightly regulated and banned from the residential sector.

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Housing policy is the sole responsibility of EU Member States. The principle of subsidiarity requires it to stay that way. A balanced housing market must include a sucient amount of aordable accommodation. This should continue to be safeguarded as part of eorts to promote socially just housing. We stand for a broad denition of social housing. EU internal market regulations must respect the peculiarities of national systems in promoting social housing. They remain a national competence. According to the European Commission, social housing should be limited to a clearly dened target group of disadvantaged households. This decision, issued with reference to a legal action against the Netherlands, breaches the principle of subsidiarity. The IUT is ercely opposed to this decision. If social housing is concentrated exclusively on the poorest households, it will be marginalised. Social and economic segregation and stigmatisation of tenants will follow. We need a new deal for aordable housing. The housing and construction sector is one of the largest sectors in Europe. It is also a key industry in terms of sustainable economic growth. Promotion of investment in aordable housing and liveable neighbourhoods is a route out of the crisis. Socially just urban development should serve to improve living conditions and respect the needs of residents. Socially just urban development is the right tool to prevent the imbalances and instability that segregation triggers. In future, EU structural funds must be targeted towards combating ghettos and creating stable neighbourhoods with aordable housing.

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A European housing directive has to be developed. This should exclude social housing from the scope of the market economy and improve accessibility to decent housing and housing conditions, especially for students, working youth and those less-favoured groups which are particularly aected by poverty, such as disadvantaged people and the elderly. More attention should be paid to the issue of homelessness, by providing care, imparting basic skills and promoting social integration.

Kaisa Penny President of ECOSY, Young European Socialists

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Further reading International Union of Tenants (IUT) Aordable rental housing for the young Make it happen now! Policy recommendations related to how to strengthen the housing market position of young people Recommendation 1 Acknowledge the right to housing as a fundamental human right The right to adequate housing is a precondition for the exercise of most other fundamental human rights. Housing is a fundamental right and a social good; thus, it has to be a part of national constitutions as well of the Lisbon Treaty. Especially in the new Member States, the CEE countries and the accession states of the EU, fundamental rights have to be watched and monitored by independent institutions e.g. the EU Commissioner in charge of Justice and Fundamental Rights and the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe. Even if the revised European Social Charter, in Article 31, explicitly protects the right to housing and drives states to promote access to housing, it is currently binding only for countries that have ratied it (31 countries up to now). Making the right to housing enforceable is not enough since it does not go hand in hand with the actual increase of supply of aordable housing as should logically happen. Recommendation 2 Member States should guarantee social rent law and strengthen tenants rights To achieve a level playing eld with equal status for homeowners, users and tenants, the rst precondition is the implementation of a social rent law. Member States should guarantee a social rent law, secure tenure and strengthen tenants rights. Secure tenure can increase economic growth, address inequalities and reduce poverty in developing countries as it can also provide opportunities for investment and the accumulation of wealth. Secure tenure is about more than just economic assets. It also provides a source of identity, status and political power and serves as a basis for the pursuit and acquisition of other rights.

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Recommendation 3 Oppose gentrication provoked by energy retrotting The social dimension of a stable national and EU funding policy for energy-ecient renovation is central for tenants. In 21 countries of the European Union and the accession states, owners and landlords can pass all or part of the renovation costs to the tenant. In many cases the rent increases lead to a gentrication process, with poor households being forced to leave their ats after the renovation. If the landlord uses public funding (subsidies or loans) for energy renovations, those costs may not be passed to the tenants. Recommendation 4 Promote tenure-neutral housing policy The current housing policies in most of the EU countries subsidise home ownership, mainly through tax incentives. This has led to increasing prices, especially in booming regions, and insucient supply of aordable rental housing. During an economic crisis, it would be wise to invest in aordable rental housing, since it creates more jobs than other construction investments. Every national housing policy should support the freedom of choice of the consumers of the market. Therefore, home ownership, cooperative rental housing and rental housing should be treated legally equally, with the same nancial support from governments with no marginalisation of the rental sector. Home ownership policies disadvantage young adults. Using Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data on the shares of owner-occupied housing across the EU-15 (OECD 2004/1), researchers have found a clear relationship between the proportion of the market that is privately owned and the proportion of young adults living with their parents. A 10 % increase in owner-occupied housing is associated with about 4 % increase in the proportion living with parents. A diversied housing stock its necessary, especially after the mortgage crises, so as to provide a housing alternative to the middle- and low-income households, which include the majority of young, and to promote an inclusive urban environment.

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Recommendation 5 Build enough units of aordable rental housing across all territories and increase the supply especially in booming regions and university towns In times of credit crunch, debt and euro crisis, housing demand shifts from expensive to aordable housing and from owner-occupation to rental housing. But most governments react in precisely the opposite way: they stimulate social housing providers to sell their housing stock and encourage owner-occupation policies, which will contribute to the spread of the nancial crisis and the problems of the housing markets. Since the market will not regulate itself and has no social or inclusive dimension, investment in aordable housing should be seen as a public responsibility, a public good and a public service. As rental housing is an essential option for the urban poor, limiting rental housing choices will provoke an increase in slums as well as indecent and overcrowded housing conditions. This is why increasing the supply of aordable housing should be a must, especially in booming regions and university towns where there is an outstanding concentration of young people. Recommendation 6 Give more priority to young tenants in the national housing allocation systems The iron law of the housing market shows that young people primarily belong to weak groups. Temporary jobs, sudden redundancies, irregular incomes and scarce social benets label a household as weak. Weaker groups live in inferior housing while stronger groups live in superior housing. Since the exclusion of young people from the housing market will hamper the intellectual capital of the EU, the welfare state and economy, Member States should launch housing policies for young people in their respective countries so as to help young adults to pay the security deposit and secure the rent in case of arrears.

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Recommendation 7 Give higher priority to the young in social housing and expand quality student accommodation Due to the allocation and waiting list system, young people are currently excluded in the social housing sector in nearly all EU Member States. Since young people are the most mobile sector of the population, understanding the nature of this pathway is essential to the task of arriving at better policies to support people making their rst housing decisions. In local and regional housing allocation systems, it is important that priorities are not entirely determined by waiting or subscription times, but that a substantial part of the urban housing stock is allocated to young tenants. Recommendation 8 Ensure a higher proportion of aordable rental stock suitable for young peoples needs Social housing should play an increasingly important role in responding to the demand for aordable rental housing for young people, although this may require some changes in terms of the dwellings (adapt the size of the dwelling to single or small households) as well as exibility in allocation and contracts. Excluding young people from the social housing sector or restricting access to it only to the most disadvantaged of them will hinder social diversity. Recommendation 9 Use empty houses and convert vacant oce spaces and empty dwellings into housing accommodation for young people Even if throughout Europe there is a shortage of aordable housing, the number of empty houses and vacant oces is notably high. In Spain, for instance, even if there are nearly 1 200 000 empty houses; more than 60 % of young adults still live with their parents due to the lack of aordable housing. One solution could be to use empty houses and oer incentives to the owners to rent the dwelling at the social price instead of the market price, in exchange for the security of receiving rent every month. Moreover, converting vacant oces into housing accommodation for young people can be another successful solution to the current shortage.

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Recommendation 10 Deliver stable nancing for housing through national youth housing programmes and income-related housing allowances Rental housing construction through low-interest loans with state guarantees might be an ecient solution to the current shortage of aordable rental housing throughout the EU. Member States should urgently consider the necessity of launching national youth housing programmes and provide incentives for housing organisations in order to encourage them to increase the available stock. Income-related housing allowances are also necessary to help young peoples housing transition. Moreover, nancial aid to reduce the housing expenditure of poor households should be an integral part of social protection. Home ownership is no option for young people as they have no access to mortgages because of their precarious nancial situation (short-term contracts, low salaries, etc.). Public subsidies or tax exemptions may also be considered since young people have no savings, no secure income and no jobs. Recommendation 11 Enlarge the eligibility of housing within the upcoming cohesion policy 201420 and reduce high energy costs for tenants and residents Since May 2009, with the amendment of Regulation (EC) No 1080/2006 on the European Regional Development Fund by Regulation (EC) No 397/2009, 4 % of the ERDF allocated to an EU Member State can be used to nance renovations to improve the energy eciency of buildings. In total, this represents about EUR 8 billion for all EU Member States in the period 200713. The ERDF should have a focus on social cohesion and the Member States a wide margin in dening eligible housing projects. The last criterion is essential for the European dimension of the ERDF funding in the housing eld. The competence for housing policy remains at national level. EU spending should concentrate on policies with European added value, in line with the principles of subsidiarity, proportionality and solidarity. Funding of energy eciency measures in the existing housing stock is one of the best economic, ecological and social examples of generating European added value.

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The ERDF and the ESF should have a housing dimension and be used for the co-nancing of national housing programs. The EU Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU should ensure that this funding possibility is expanded for the new structural funds period 201420. The European Investment Bank (EIB) should also give grants and loans for social housing plans in the EU Member States. Finally, the provision through the ESF of some EUR 20 billion, which among other things is directed towards improving social inclusion in Europe, must mean housing for all. Conclusions The Europe 2020 strategy constitutes an agreement to reduce poverty in the European Union by 20 % before 2020. The high costs of housing are strongly linked to poverty and social exclusion. At the same time, long-term diculties in paying mortgages or rent can lead to relocation and homelessness and cause greater demands on social and aordable housing. There are three key issues in housing the young: housing quality, aordability and availability. Out of these three, availability is the main sticking point. Across Europe, it is dicult for people with a lower income to access decent, quality housing as the waiting lists for social housing are long. The EU should therefore ensure that Member States housing policies oer incentives for housing providers to raise the level of the social housing stock in their country. Young peoples access to housing is vital for a more inclusive society and a more social Europe. More information on IUT can be found on page 23.

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Smart growth for aordable and universally accessible housing

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SMART GROWTH FOR AFFORDABLE AND UNIVERSALLY ACCESSIBLE HOUSING

There is an increasing demand for social housing from all age and demographic groups and greater pressure placed on local and regional authorities in meeting the needs of varied population groups. Therefore, in order to meet the needs of an ageing population, there is an urgent need to develop services that are closely aligned with the needs of this sector of the population and technically and economically affordable. As poverty among older people throughout Europe is increasing, the new European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing, which coordinates research in the eld, should include a specic strand devoted to developing aordable solutions to enable older people to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. Improving conditions for access to the existing housing stock is a reasonable, viable way to reduce the need for assistance, helping people to remain in their places of residence and making it easier for them to regain a social life by boosting their personal independence. People need to be placed at the centre of pilot programmes developing the smart cities of tomorrow, by including a social inclusion element and encouraging users to participate in the projects. This acknowledges their key role in transforming cities, which must guarantee social cohesion in order to be sustainable. More extensive programmes should be developed to encourage users to feel more ownership of the technologies for constructing passive buildings. European funding should support not only technological research but also such programmes in order to raise the prole of these technologies and to take on board the views of users/ consumers. Positive developments will be guaranteed by the advances in information technology and telecare which support elderly and disabled residents in their homes.

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Walter Blachfellner was born in 1952 in Werfen, Austria. From 1970 to 2011, he worked at the Austrian postal and telegraphic services. He started his political career in the union of postal workers in 1982 and became the countrys top postal trade unionist in 1989. In 1996, he took over the presidency of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (GB) Salzburg and was thus responsible for 80 000 union members and more than 200 000 workers in the country. Since April 2001, he has been a member of the government of Salzburg. He is currently responsible for housing construction, land use planning, environmental protection and commercial matters. Walter Blachfellner Minister of the regional government of Salzburg, in charge of housing construction (Austria)

Aordable and decent accommodation is a fundamental right of every EU citizen. It is therefore the task of EU politicians to assume this responsibility and to create the framework conditions for achieving this goal. Every EU citizen should have access to appropriate living and working conditions in order to enable him/her to participate fully in society and to ensure the fundamental rights of the individual.

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On assuming responsibility for the residential building department of the Austrian province of Salzburg in 2004, my priority was to make decent and aordable housing in a healthy environment available to everyone. In 2006, therefore, the entire nancing system was overhauled with the establishment of the provincial housing construction fund (Landeswohnbaufonds). Instead of banks, the province now grants loans at a favourable rate of interest both to those buying private homes and to not-for-prot residential property developers in the rental sector, which in due course all ow back into the fund. Since the funds introduction in 2006, around EUR 270 million a year has been invested in new-build housing and renovation. By way of comparison, in 2004 EUR 193 million was invested in subsidised housing construction. Had I not introduced the provincial housing construction fund in 2006, there would be EUR 110 million less available annually, which equates to 800 fewer homes being built every year and to 2 600 jobs in the construction sector. The Salzburg provincial housing construction fund is a nancing model for residential construction and is unique of its kind in Austria. The fund grants substantial subsidised loans for new-build housing and renovation at low and stable interest rates. No bank is able to oer such low rates of interest as the fund. Around EUR 270 million is invested in housing construction every year. This corresponds to 2 100 subsidised new units. In addition, the fund safeguards or creates around 9 000 jobs a year in the local construction industry, making it the province of Salzburgs largest employer. Legal basis Since 1 January 2006, the fund has been responsible for all housing construction subsidies in the province. It has its own legal personality. The province of Salzburg guarantees all liabilities. The fund is managed by the provincial department for housing construction subsidies.

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Concept of the provincial housing construction fund The province of Salzburg raises money for the fund on capital markets on conditions which no bank is able to match. The fund uses the resources in the form of interest-bearing loans to applicants. Applicants repay their subsidised loans over a xed term. The fund also encourages early repayment of loans taken out before 2006. Both sides benet from this repayment of older loans; if beneciaries repay their loans early, they can receive reductions of up to 50 %. Resources thus return to the fund more quickly and are worth more to the fund than if they had been repaid at the end of the contractual period. In 2010, repayments amounted to EUR 36 million, equating to 280 additional housing units. Around 25 to 30 years hence, the fund intends to be able to maintain its activities without recourse to external resources. In many areas we are living at the expense of future generations. But Salzburgs provincial housing construction fund is a rare example of being able to tell them: Even in 20 or 30 years, there will still be money for you!

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The European institutions are still too quiet about their involvement in relation to social housing. Its time for Europe to make its ambitions clear, to make citizens understand what it is doing to support access for all to aordable housing, taking into account both rents and service charges. For my part, I see two windows of opportunity to give EU action meaning. The rst of these lies in the importance given in the cohesion policy for 2014-2020 to renovation of housing to make it heat-ecient, access to housing for disadvantaged groups, development of social facilities in local areas and promotion of urban renewal of run-down neighbourhoods. The second is the intention of the Commission and the European Council, in the context of strengthening the governance of the euro area, to set up a monitoring, alert and prevention system against property bubbles. Such bubbles not only disturb the stability of the euro area, but also clash with the EUs social and territorial cohesion objectives. We can and must grasp these opportunities. We must enforce the fundamental right to decent housing without ruinous expense.

ierry Repentin President of the Union Sociale pour lHabitat, Senator (PS) for the region of Savoy (France)

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Universally accessible energy-ecient housing for sustainable environment

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UNIVERSALLY ACCESSIBLE ENERGY EFFICIENT HOUSING FOR SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT

The residential sector causes 40 % of greenhouse gas emissions and is therefore a high priority in the ght against climate change. To meet these objectives, it is vital to improve the conditions of the housing stock built over 30 years ago, which in some European regions accounts for 70 % of the existing total. The energy-related renovation of four dwellings creates the equivalent of one job, and therefore the sector has a signicant positive structural eect on employment, economic growth and the environment at local level. Energy-related housing renovation in the context of social cohesion should remain eligible for European Union structural funds, while giving greater exibility to each region in terms of the amount of funding allocated to this activity. The structural funds must make eective use of the partnership principle and the Member States must be encouraged to cooperate with local and regional authorities to set priorities and determine how the funding should be used. The European Parliament and the Council should ensure that requirements to reduce energy consumption and fuel poverty have a positive impact on vulnerable households and that measures to promote renovation are specically focused on reducing energy poverty by setting up specic national or regional funds. Technical assistance facilities such as ELENA (support for drafting local energy eciency plans) and specialised funds such as Jessica (support for integrated urban development, making use of the structural funds) are two key tools in implementing the Covenant of Mayors (which the CoR helped to establish) and need to be renewed and boosted during the next programming period.

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An important point for Swedish housing policy is that everyone should have the opportunity to rent an apartment of good quality at reasonable costs. Therefore we do not have special housing for the poor in Malm. No one should be able to determine from the address whether you are poor, rich or for example a drug addict. For that reason, apartments for people living on social benets are to be found all over the city, in each neighbourhood.

Ilmar Reepalu member of the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions and Mayor of Malm (Sweden)

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Carina Nilsson was born in Malm in 1959. After qualifying as an occupational therapist and care teacher, she worked from 1980 to 1992 as an occupational therapist for the municipality and the county. From 1993 to 2008 she was a public health ocial at Malm University Hospital (UMAS). From 1995 to 1997 she was member of the District Council, and since 1998 she has been member of the Municipal Council. Since 2006, she has been member of the City Executive Board. In 2008 she obtained her masters degree in public health. In the same year, she became Deputy Mayor, rst responsible for culture and recreation, then for welfare and care. Since 2010 she has chaired the Social Resource Committee. Carina Nilsson Deputy Mayor of Malm (Sweden)

In Malm, we are working hard on sustainable urban development. This encompasses three dimensions: environmental, economic and social. Environmental sustainability Malm is a world leader in sustainable construction. The district of Vstra Hamnen is a centre of housing, industry and education that grew out of the Bo01 housing exhibition. It is a new district bringing together modern architecture and environmental sustainability. The area is powered wholly by locally produced energy from sustainable sources solar, wind and hydro power and energy generated from the districts waste. Reduce, reuse and recycle as far as possible: these have been guiding principles of the Bo01 project. Since the housing exhibition, Vstra Hamnen has been a hive of building activity. A number of buildings have won prestigious architectural prizes, including our new landmark and Swedens tallest residential building, the Turning Torso.

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Social sustainability Malm faces a major challenge in reducing the health gap between people with decent living conditions and people without: the focus is social sustainability. Malm shares this challenge with the rest of world. In Malm alone, a city of 300 000 inhabitants, life expectancy varies by up to 8 years from district to district. It is important, therefore, to prevent and reduce residential segregation through urban planning and social policy. Economic sustainability For that reason, it is vital that a new district such as Vstra Hamnen should be built for and be open to all the people of Malm. Since the mid-20th century, Swedish housing policy has sought to give everyone the opportunity to rent quality housing at a reasonable cost. As a result, Swedish public housing companies, unlike those in many other countries, have a wider remit than merely providing social housing for the poor. Complexes with exclusively social housing do not exist in Sweden. Moreover, Malms municipal housing agency (MKB), with 22 000 properties on its books, is the citys biggest landlord. This obviously means that the MKB has a particular responsibility for the housing market in Malm and for making an active contribution to development of the city. Our housing policy is based a key premise: namely we do not want housing agencies or complexes specically for the poor. No one should be able to tell from an address if a person is poor, rich, a drug addict, etc. Instead tenancy rights should be accessible to everyone under the same conditions.

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Social housing in Vstra Hamnen It is very important to us that our new residential area should be a mix of rented and privately owned housing. However, other social services are also important. Vstra Hamnen today oers sheltered accommodation for older people and housing for people with disabilities. There are also a number of social apartments spread across the various buildings, where social services take responsibility for the lease until the tenants themselves are in a position to do so. From autumn 2012, we will be oering transitional accommodation for homeless single people and couples who have been drug-free for at least 6 months. We also have accommodation for unaccompanied refugee children. More about other housing policies We must of course work across a range of elds to combat residential segregation, give all Malm residents access to decent housing and reduce homelessness. In Malm, we have recently re-established a municipal housing agency where private property owners can also register their vacant apartments for rent. The housing service has very transparent rules: ats are let to applicants who meet the landlords requirements and have expressed an interest in the property strictly in order of how long they have been on the waiting list. Malm has also reached agreement with property owners that welfare benets should count as income for the purposes of at letting. This greatly helps families on long-term welfare support. In Sweden, people can also apply for housing benet, the level of which is contingent on factors such as income, the cost and size of the accommodation in question and the number of children in the household.

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We have also recently launched a project based on the housing-rst approach an initiative with which I think many of you will be familiar. This project is based on the principle that it is impossible for people to turn their lives around and live drug-free until they have a stable base their own place to live. Much of the work with homeless substance abusers has in the past been built on the assumption that people have to resolve their addiction issues before they can be given accommodation. We are now trying to change that perspective. We are starting small but will gradually expand the project if it proves eective. Further reading Energy eciency in social housing: the CASH project The CASH project is being carried out within the framework of Urbact, the European exchange and learning programme promoting sustainable urban development. Urbact is co-nanced by the ERDF and the Member States. Energy eciency in social housing is a multifaceted subject, involving nancial and technical aspects, but also legal, cultural and organisational ones. The ambition of the CASH project is to propose new solutions and promote new policies for the sustainable renovation of social and aordable housing units in the European Union. The overall aim is to reduce the energy consumption of buildings and in buildings through improved energy eciency and responsible users behaviour. Most available social housing units are ageing and have low environmental standards. At the same time, there is still a lack of experience and expertise in the eld of sustainable renovation of buildings. This is the gap that the CASH project seeks to ll.

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CASH is a network of 11 partners (10 cities and one region): Utrecht (Netherlands), Tatabnya (Hungary), Sonderborg (Denmark), Les Mureaux and Echirolles (France), the region of Rhne-Alpes (France), Brindisi (Italy), Bridgend (UK), Frankfurt (Germany), Yambol (Bulgaria) and Ptolemaida (Greece). The project is led by Echirolles. Launched in November 2009, CASH will run through January 2013. Outputs so far include the rst CASH mini-guide on technological development and the Baseline study, an extensive study of the issues addressed by CASH, in Europe and in all the partner cities. To nd out more about the project, visit the CASH website (http://bit.ly/CASH-project).

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PART IIProvision of social housing across the EU: some examples from members of the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions


AUSTRIAOverview of social housing policies in Austria In Austria, there is no ocial denition of social housing, but there are dierent forms of housing provision beyond the market. Municipal housing is rental housing provided by municipalities, while limited prot housing is rental and owner-occupied housing provided on a non-prot basis by investors, which are regulated by the Non-prot Housing Act and have access to public subsidies. The federal provinces provide funding through the housing promotion schemes, which dene the type of housing and providers that can access funding as well as rent limits and income limits for residents. The social housing stock currently represents about 23 % of the total housing stock in the country, 60 % of which is owned by municipalities and public companies. However, the contribution of municipalities to new construction of social housing was reduced to only 12 % over the period 200109. The main sector is currently the limited prot sector, which includes cooperatives and companies. A smaller part of subsidised housing is provided by for-prot providers.

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THE EU

Austria has a very structured system for nancing the provision of social housing. It combines long-term public loans on favourable conditions and grants dened at the level of federal provinces with commercial loans raised via bonds and developertenant equity. Promotion of social housing is also supported by municipal land policy. Rents are calculated on the basis of costs combined with rent limitation, dened by the subsidy schemes. All providers must apply income limits dened by the dierent promotion schemes of the federal provinces. Limited prot providers also have to apply additional social criteria determining priority in the allocation of dwellings. Furthermore, federal provinces as well as public owners of housing companies can claim a certain number of dwellings in order to allocate them themselves. Public housing promotion underwent substantial reform in 2009, when the central state withdrew from nancing and the former budget dedicated to housing promotion was integrated into the overall budget of the federal provinces. Following the economic and nancial crisis, the number of housing units receiving public grants decreased by 25 % in 2010. Also, the above-mentioned system of covered bonds enjoying a preferential tax treatment has been negatively aected by the crisis. Due to the high housing demand, the supply of sucient and aordable housing in the forthcoming years will constitute an important challenge.

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An example of a social housing project from a member of the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions Housing policy as a tool in the ght against poverty and social exclusion Housing policy is a key instrument in the ght against poverty and social exclusion. It can act in a number of dierent ways: providing access to aordable housing for all sections of the population; keeping people out of the debt trap; Elisabeth Vitouch Member of the Vienna City Council (Austria) preventing social segregation in the form of built social ghettos; integrating immigrants; integrating vulnerable groups; preventing fuel poverty; establishing sustainable, long-term structures and nancing systems. The EU can contribute both positively and negatively: positively, through co-nancing (structural funds), but also through the transfer of know-how and capacity building; negatively, through competition law (for example, in the proceedings against the Netherlands and Sweden), which may also aect Austrian law on public support.

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THE EU

Social sustainability in the Vienna housing sector Since 2009, all subsidised housing projects conducted under developer competitions (some 7 000 units per year, representing about 90 % of total residential newbuild) must also be checked for their social sustainability. Accordingly, subsidised housing must be suitable for different uses, user groups and housing types, with multipurpose oor plans, site development facilities and common and outside areas. Attention must also be paid to everyday suitability and appropriate planning to reduce running and management costs. Projects must contribute to the social mix, boost active participation, facilitate building management, help build a sense of local identity and pride and also include elements of social infrastructure in order to encourage integration. The following sets of criteria need to be taken into account: day-to-day practicality cost reduction through planning living in community living for changing needs. It is worth noting that in 2010, the Vienna City Council led a working group on housing with Eurocities, which discussed general principles for social housing and concrete European policy demands. For another contribution from Austria, please read the piece by Walter Blachfellner, page 46.

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BELGIUMOverview of social housing policies in Belgium Since 1980, social housing has been a regional competence in Belgium. Each of the three regions (Brussels-Capital region, Wallonia and Flanders) has adopted its own housing code, which establishes the right to housing and denes the concept and scope of social housing provision. Social housing accounts on average for about 7 % of the total national housing stock, with dierences between the regions (around 6 % in Flanders and Wallonia, 8 % in Brussels). Social housing provision is mostly nanced by funding from the regional budgets and, unlike in most other European countries, the level of rent charged depends on the income of the tenant household. It is worth noting that social housing in Belgium is available both for rent and for sale in Wallonia and Flanders, while in the Brussels-Capital region it is available only for rent. A number of dierent actors are involved in social housing provision in Belgium. Each region has its own public housing company (Socit du Logement de la Rgion de Bruxelles-Capitale, Vlaamse Maatschappij voor Sociaal Wonen and Socit Wallonne du Logement in Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia respectively) which is responsible for the supervision and nancing of social housing and acts as an intermediary between the regional government and local housing organisations. The latter also work in close cooperation with municipalities and other local public bodies. Also involved in social housing provision is the Walloon Housing Fund (Fond du Logement de la Wallonie, FLW), whose role is mainly to provide social loans for access to home ownership for vulnerable households, to buy/renovate privately owned dwellings to be rented as social housing and to coordinate a number of non-prot associations working on housing-related services. Furthermore, social rental agencies act as an intermediary between private landlords and social housing applicants by renting dwellings on the private market and making them available to people in urgent need of accommodation.

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THE EU

In the Brussels-Capital region, a city region where the housing market is under great pressure, the provision of decent housing at an aordable price is strongly needed. To face this challenge, the nancial means of the social housing sector have been considerably increased in recent years, with a signicant increase in the level of construction, renovation and maintenance activities. The mobilisation of private resources and the successful conclusion of public private partnerships in urban regeneration projects and new construction have contributed to addressing the housing shortage. Furthermore, social action plans have been introduced, which integrate the development of social cohesion projects and the creation of a social support service for social housing tenants.

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An example of a social housing project from a member of the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions Presentation of the RBDH The Rassemblement Bruxellois pour le Droit lHabitat (RBDH) is a bilingual organisation of about 50 associations defending the right to housing in Brussels and working to ensure access to decent housing at aordable prices. We have chosen to present two projects launched by RBDH member associations which are remarkable for their innovative features and could serve as examples of good practice. Alain Hutchinson Member of the Brussels Regional Parliament (Belgium) Two projects headed by associations working towards insertion through housing. 1. The Hope project A brief description For 5 years, 14 low-income families have been working hard on a project involving the purchase of a building in the Brussels commune of Molenbeek.

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THE EU

The project has several innovative features: low-income households have been able to access the building; the inhabitants have invested considerable time and energy in the project; various public and private bodies and associations have cooperated to good eect; the new housing meets energy-eciency standards. The project It began in 2003, when the commune of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, with the help of the Brussels-Capital region, decided to purchase a polluted plot of land for the purpose of subsidised housing. Shortly thereafter, the Bonnevie maison de quartier (community centre) and the Housing Fund (1) proposed a project which was approved. The Housing Fund then purchased the site for a quarter of the asking price. It assumed the role of works supervisor and directed, funded and supervised the project. At the same time, a group of purchasers came together and decided to found an association known as LEspoir, or Hope. The group was extremely active throughout the project. It also set up a collective savings account, paying in EUR 50 each month. This money was used to cover various expenses (moving, painting, etc.). With the assistance of the Bonnevie maison de quartier and the CIRE (coordination and initiatives for refugees and aliens), the group, encompassing 14 households, successfully applied for the necessary grants. The building expenses were carefully scrutinised, with the architect and builder involved from the very start of the project. Another innovative feature is that the inhabitants chose apartments which met energy-eciency standards.

(1)

This body, monitored and subsidised by the Brussels-Capital region, oers mortgages at advantageous rates and conditions, rent assistance, regional loans for rent guarantees, etc.

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2. The housing barometer and monitoring housing policy Principles In early 2010, RBDH brought out its new housing barometer. This mechanism makes it possible to measure government action in the area of housing, set against the governments own objectives. The barometer has a varied target audience: associations that help their members understand the housing crisis, politicians who can consult a pragmatic and regular account, media who convey information, etc. Method We have listed all the housing-related measures in the 200914 government agreement, amounting to 73 in total. We regularly assess the progress made in all these measures and conduct six-monthly evaluations. This enables us to determine the gaps between political pledges and achievements on the ground, and to identify the governments real priorities. Public involvement in political issues All the associations which are members of RBDH encourage their members to play an active role in order to promote understanding of routine problems and foster autonomy. Various groups, made up of inhabitants and assisted by social workers, use the barometer to come to grips with political and legal advances in housing, as well as the remaining obstacles.

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THE EU

In general, the groups and committees of inhabitants are extremely active. They hold regular meetings, take part in programmes to raise public awareness and cooperate in various events and activities. For example, they regularly attend meetings of the Brussels parliaments housing commissions, and in early 2010 invited MPs to a friendly breakfast. Conclusions and demands by the voluntary sector With a working group which it heads, RBDH records the problems encountered by authorised and subsidised associations in their eorts to promote insertion through housing. Bureaucracy causes problems for the associations at grassroots level. Therefore, RBDH calls for les and grant requests to be processed more quickly and uniformly; it also calls for a clearer legal framework.

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CZECH REPUBLICOverview of social housing policies in the Czech Republic A high level of decentralisation, together with the lack of a legal framework, makes it dicult to dene the scope of social housing provision in the Czech Republic.

a european agenda for social housing

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