The Elan law, passed in 2018 to simplify urban planning standards and improve access to housing, has not yet generated the expected “supply shock”, despite several successes, according to a parliamentary report published on Wednesday.
“Housing production has not increased since the adoption of the law. Nevertheless, (…) the provisions in terms of town planning take time to find their effect because of the very long duration of the development operations, which it is not uncommon for them to last more than five years” , can we read in the report presented by the deputies Thibault Bazin (LR), Christelle Dubos (LREM), Jean-Luc Lagleize (MoDem) and Richard Lioger (LREM).
housing construction, down steadily under Emmanuel Macron’s five-year termbegan to rebound in 2021, after the Covid-19 lockdowns were halted in 2020.
Two successes all the same
The authors of the report underline, on the other hand, two undeniable successes of the Elan law: the Visale rental guarantee and the operations to revitalize the territory.
The Visale guarantee, which allows people under 30 and low-income employees looking for housing to benefit from a deposit from the Action Logement organization, “effectively fulfills its social role of widening access to the rental market”, according to the report. Over 616,000 Visale contracts have been issued since its launch in 2016, and their number is increasing from year to year, especially as the guarantee has, over time, been extended to more and more audiences. It is, however, a device “still insufficiently known and acclaimed” and which “also continues to suffer from a lack of credibility compared to the classic guarantee”, note the authors.
Territorial revitalization operations (ORT), which make it possible to revitalize city centers with a strategy on the scale of intermunicipal co-operation and economic and fiscal aid, are “one of the rare mechanisms arousing the positive unanimity of the actors” , according to the report. As of October 31, 2021, 278 agreements had been signedwith “particularly pronounced success in cities eligible for the Action Cœur de ville and Small towns of tomorrow programs”, indicate the elected officials.
The supervision and planning of the establishment of large commercial surfaces, since reinforced by the Climate and Resilience law which limits the artificialization of the soil, have “allowed better quality urban planning”, they add.
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Mixed success for simplification measures
On the other hand, the tools supposed to simplify standards in construction and urban planning have had more mixed success.
The effects of rent control, a divisive measure, “cannot yet be fully measured to date”, given the delay since its implementation: since July 2019 in Paris, and gradually extended to other urban areas since.
The grouping of social landlords, which aimed to simplify this ecosystem, led to a 13% reduction in their number, from 638 to 556. But the effects of these operations led to a “mixed picture” according to representatives of the HLM, according to the report.
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