Guidance Paper on EU regulation & public support for housing (EU Urban Agenda, March 2017)

• Guidance Paper on EU regulation & public support for housing

• Paper elaborated as part of the EU Urban Agenda - Housing Partnership, and adopted at the 6th Partnership Meeting in Brussels on 23 March 2017

• Available as a PDF file on the European Commission's site: https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/system/files/ged/3._briefing_note_2016_social_housing_and_state_aid_for_services_of_general_economic.pdf

• Summary:

  • This paper of the EU Urban Agenda Housing Partnership raises the awareness of European institutions to continue the work on better EU regulation on public support measures and Services of General Economic Interest (SGEI) that can ensure sufficient and adequate supply of social and affordable1dwellings in urban areas. (...)

  • The paper unifies the essential results of a long time debate on that topic. It is based on scientific findings of widespread case studies of the situation in many cities in Europe. Increasing housing costs and housing exclusions, particularly in profit-oriented and speculative parts of the sector, can be limited by public and (for-profit and non-profit) private investments in social and affordable dwellings. (...)

  • The development of the last years in Europe have led to an alarming decline of public investments at local level. The uncertainty and instability of the finance framework and low expected returns prevent investments in social and affordable housing. Housing market failures endanger social cohesion in Europe, increase homelessness and poverty, and drop the confidence in democracy.

  • To address all these challenges, national and local authorities must be able to adopt adequate housing policies, including state aid measures, to create conditions and support for investments in social and affordable housing.

• Keywords: affordability, housing crisis, housing market, public investment, investment funds, financialisation, homelessness, poverty, democracy