Nicolas Bouzou, edited by Thibault Nadal 4:32 p.m., February 16, 2022

Le Figaro reveals that several cities have been ordered to pay heavy fines for not building enough social housing.

Fines that can sometimes amount to more than two million euros.

Our columnist Nicolas Bouzou returns to the SRU law which obliges municipalities to have 25% social housing on their territory.

EDITORIAL

In 2019, some cities paid over €1 million in fines for not building enough social housing.

On the podium of the cities that paid the highest fines, we find Saint-Maur-des-Fossés and Boulogne.

In total, it is more than 5 million euros in fines that these municipalities will have paid.

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Fines exceeding two million euros per city

First of all, I would like to recall the law relating to solidarity and urban renewal (SRU) which dates from the 2000s. Basically, municipalities with more than 3,500 inhabitants must have 20% social housing on all of their housing otherwise, they pay a fine that increases with the number of missing social housing units.

Among the cities that pay more than 2 million euros in fines, we find Saint-Maur, Boulogne, Le Cannet, Saint-Raphaël.

Personally, I find this law outrageous and unsuitable.

It is scandalous because it homogenizes town planning even though the situations of the cities are all different.

Some have suburban histories, others have little land available.

Take the case of Saint-Raphaël, which is located in Estérel.

More than 80% of the territory of Saint-Raphaël is not buildable, so the fine becomes punitive.

France has 25% of European social housing

We lack housing, that's true, but we don't lack social housing.

France, on its territory, hosts 25% of European social housing.

Social housing in France is 5 million dwellings housing 10 million people.

As a result, it will still be difficult to explain to me that it is not a lot.

The problem is that we have made social housing the cornerstone of our housing policy.

France lacks housing where economic activity is concentrated.

We must build social housing and then also stop rotting the life of the owners, because that is what will increase the supply and lower the prices.

We must put an end to contradictory injunctions.

We have in France a nice law against urban sprawl, but which makes it extremely difficult for mayors to build.

And then moreover, in the cities that we have mentioned, the mayors that I know well for the most part, build there and build as much as possible.

And besides, they were almost all triumphantly elected or re-elected.

Support construction in cities

To end poverty, we must support the mayors who build, whether it is social housing or not.

But, above all, it is necessary to change the way of thinking.

It is the tenant or the buyer who is social, not the lessor.

Moreover, this tenant, he is not destined to stay all his life in social housing.

So we have to build more buildings, more individual houses and help the least well-off people to have access to housing and invest in heating systems that do not emit CO2.

>> READ ALSO - Éric Zemmour wants to abolish the SRU law on social housing quotas

I find that from a political point of view, it is all the same very difficult to have, on the one hand, a Prime Minister who makes enamored speeches to local elected officials and, on the other, a Minister for Housing who explains learnedly to the mayor at what their city should look like".