The Government approves, with the opposition of Sumar, a plan like the one defended by Ana Botín to promote young people's access to housing

Marcos Iriarte Madrid

Madrid

Updated Tuesday, February 13, 2024-13:04

One of the first people to propose this measure was the president of Banco Santander,

Ana Botín

. She did so in May 2020, with an eye on a program that had had some success in the United Kingdom in 2013, called

Help to buy,

through which the Government facilitated the financing of a property for young people with public guarantees. Perhaps because it comes precisely from Botín, parties like Sumar distrust this program and believe that the Government - to which they belong - should prioritize other policies to encourage young people's access to housing.

Despite not having the aforementioned

endorsement

from the training led by

Yolanda Díaz,

the Government yesterday approved a line of guarantees of up to 2,500 million euros through the Official Credit Institute (ICO) so that Spaniards up to 35 years old or Families with minors in their care can finance up to 20% of the cost of a home.

The program, defended this Tuesday by the Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda,

Isabel Rodríguez

, imposes as a criterion that the beneficiary does not exceed 37,500 euros of annual income and that said guarantee is intended to partially cover the mortgage loan.

Access to housing is one of the main problems of Spanish youth and the Executive is aware of the need to put policies on the table that reverse this situation. The President of the Government,

Pedro Sánchez

, boasted about the imminence of its approval this Saturday at a PSOE rally in Vigo, in the middle of the Galician regional election campaign, but he had also already announced it in May 2023 during another campaign event in Santa Cruz de Tenerife for the municipal elections last year.

Similar lines have been defended and have been applied for months in Communities such as

Madrid

, governed by

Isabel Díaz Ayuso

, or

Murcia

, in which

Fernando López Miras governs.

As Minister Rodríguez has detailed, after the approval of this plan in the Council of Ministers, financial entities must adhere to the agreement with the ICO. "We have already had conversations," the minister indicated.

The objective of the Executive with this plan, he specified, is that "no Spaniard has to allocate more than 30% of his income to pay for his home."

Díaz says that prices will rise

The second vice president does not believe that this plan is the way to guarantee access to housing for young people. What's more, she believes that "it will have a probable impact of continuing to raise housing prices."

Yolanda Díaz has acknowledged her "disagreement" with this measure and her "concern" over the fact that the socialists have prioritized it over the commitment they adopted with Sumar in the coalition government agreement to immediately publish the reference price index of rent in stressed areas.

"The priority is, therefore, on the millions of people who cannot pay the rent and the priority is to immediately publish the reference rates in the stressed areas," he claimed in statements in his ministry collected by the agency. EFE.