The Association of Mayors of France (AMF) publishes on Tuesday 20 proposals to “meet the financing needs of communities” with “zero net artificialization” (ZAN), a system included in the Climate and Energy law of 2021 and which aims to stop the concreteization of land.
The objective of achieving zero net artificialization in 2050 must be accompanied by a new powerful and incentive economic, financial and fiscal model, estimates the association in a summary published on Tuesday.
However, this unthought of the Climate Law has serious consequences for communities, believes the AMF for whom they are already subject to land speculation and retention, the blocking of projects and the absence of strategic vision on the future economic models of the construction.
The proposals made by the AMF, which has been very critical of this system for two years, aim in particular to clarify state aid, reorient certain tax measures and regulate land prices.
On the tax side, the mayors are asking the government and Parliament in particular to transform the various taxes on vacant housing into a real municipal block tax, to reform the tax on secondary residences in order to make it accessible to more municipalities, or even to increase the tax on capital gains on the transfer of bare land that has become buildable, by providing for exemptions.
They also ask for a reform of the taxation of transfer taxes for onerous purposes (DMTO) in favor of municipalities, and a greater fiscal and economic interest in renaturing or carrying out urban renewal.
In terms of land, the AMF is, for example, calling for innovative land or tax tools allowing, for example, the dissociation of land and buildings, in order to reduce the price of housing.
The AMF also promotes increased support for engineering, particularly through the creation of public land establishments with protected taxation.
The intermediate objective of the ZAN is to reduce by half, by 2031, the consumption of natural and agricultural areas compared to the previous decade.