The Generalitat is open to reorganizing its housing structure to strengthen the fight against rental fraud. The Minister of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition and spokesperson, Sílvia Paneque, assured this Tuesday, after the Consell Executiu, that the Executive views the Comuns’ proposal to create a General Directorate of Housing Discipline “favorably.” “It is a Comuns proposal. We view it favorably,” she stated after a question from EL PAÍS. Paneque defended that this structure would allow for better management of inspections and sanctioning files, at a time when the Generalitat is trying to strengthen its response against rental housing fraud. The Government’s predisposition brings it closer to the Comuns to expedite a budgetary agreement in Catalonia, if the Executive finally gets the green light from Esquerra.
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The Comuns’ initiative proposes a specific administrative fit: the new General Directorate of Housing Discipline would be independent of the Agència de l’Habitatge de Catalunya, but would be integrated within the Secretariat of Housing, under the umbrella of Paneque’s Department. The objective is to concentrate in a single body the supervision of inspectors’ work and the processing of sanctions for irregularities such as non-compliance with price limits or fraudulent contracts. Comuns argues that the current model dilutes these functions within the Agency and reduces its effectiveness, and advocates strengthening sanctioning policy as a deterrent against abusive practices, especially by large landlords. “A general directorate that pays special attention to the management of inspectors’ work and sanctioning files can lighten the burden on the Agència de l’Habitatge de Catalunya,” admitted Paneque, who pointed out that the current housing body “must be focused on the management of Catalonia’s public housing stock, which is now growing.”
The Government is already deploying a reinforcement of the inspection body, with nearly a hundred personnel from internal promotion and currently undergoing training. The intention is for this team to gain operational capacity in the coming months and act more effectively against fraud.
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The Executive’s response comes amid full budgetary negotiations between the Executive and ERC. The Catalan government intends to comply with the investiture agreements with the republicans, but after failing in the transfer of IRPF management, the Investment Consortium is at risk because the proposal does not secure enough favorable votes in the Congress of Deputies. Three months before the deadline that ERC and the Government set for approving the accounts, July 31, the Comuns and the Executive show signs of harmony that Paneque has reconfirmed. “We have a budget agreement that we want to update,” said the parliamentary spokesperson for Comuns, David Cid, in the Parliament’s press room this Tuesday.
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