In his general policy speech, Gabriel Attal promised this Tuesday a “supply shock” for housing. Concretely, what did he announce?
Appointed to Matignon on January 9, Gabriel Attal waited no less than twenty-one days to make his general policy speech. This Tuesday, January 30, 2024, in front of the deputies of the National Assembly, the new Prime Minister spoke at length, delivering his roadmap for the coming months. If the farmers’ crisis has, unsurprisingly, been addressed, the head of government made several announcements concerning another sector particularly in crisis: housing. While this is the first item of expenditure for the French, Gabriel Attal promised a “shock of offers” and announced no less than five measures to “unlock” housing.
Once again, the Prime Minister does not want to waste time. “Within two weeks”, he assured, 20 territories will be chosen to be part of the experiment to accelerate the procedures, announced Gabriel Attal who wants 30,000 new housing units to emerge in the three coming years. To achieve this, the head of government warned, the executive “will not hesitate” to requisition empty offices. The Prime Minister also wants the standards to be simplified. Simplification in sight for the new, but also for the old. Gabriel Attal assured that he also wanted to “simplify Ma Rénov Prime”, this public aid which allows many owners to partly finance their energy renovation.
The Prime Minister also indicated that he wanted a modification of the Energy Performance Diagnosis (DPE) even though its reliability is regularly criticized. This announcement comes as, in a little less than a year, on January 1, 2025, accommodation classified in category G will no longer be able to be rented. Nearly 650,000 homes are affected while, at the same time, France has a housing shortage. And while requests for social housing reached a record threshold (2.6 million) in 2023, Gabriel Attal made two announcements concerning HLM. In a first point, the head of government indicated that he wanted to “give a hand to the mayors for the first allocation in the new social housing built in their municipality”. Finally, Gabriel Attal wishes to modify the calculation of the 25% HLM quotas in each municipality. He would like the integration of intermediate housing, intended for the middle classes. Announcements which have already caused a strong reaction from players in the sector. But this is without remembering that the Prime Minister, by announcing that he wanted a “supply shock”, brought out of the closet a formula already used by a certain Emmanuel Macron, seven years ago. And this, even though we have since known that the number of building permits has clearly fallen (-23%), just to mention their fate…
