The Prime Minister announced a series of social measures for working-class neighborhoods on Friday October 27 during the interministerial council of cities in Yvelines.
After rolling out her security and judicial plan to respond to the riots observed throughout France in June 2023, after the death of Nahel, Elisabeth Borne presented the social aspect of the responses to be made in the suburbs. Since the interministerial council of cities (CIV) organized in Chanteloup-les-Vignes, in Yvelines, the Prime Minister addressed hundreds of mayors to present a whole series of measures, many of which concern priority neighborhoods.
“A testing policy to fight against discriminatory practices in access to internships, hiring, housing or bank loans” must be put in place from 2024. The system must allow residents of working-class neighborhoods in particular to be able to access employment regardless of their ethnic, social or geographical origin, assured the Prime Minister who considers it “unacceptable that certain names or certain addresses could condemn people to unemployment”. This testing will be headed by the Interministerial Delegation for the Fight against Racism, Anti-Semitism and Anti-LGBT Hate (DILCRAH) and must control at least 500 companies per year.
Noting that social difficulties such as unemployment, school dropouts or precariousness are often concentrated in the same neighborhoods, particularly the most popular, Elisabeth Borne asked mayors to stop creating social housing or accommodation intended for the most vulnerable people. precarious in working-class neighborhoods. This housing will have to be allocated in other areas of the city, because “we cannot concentrate all the difficulties in the same neighborhoods,” declared the Matignon tenant. The measure must also promote social diversity and respond to mayors’ demand for a better “distribution key” in the allocation of social housing.
Already mentioned by Emmanuel Macron in an interview given on the Hugo Décrypte YouTube channel, the opening of schools a few days in advance of the start of the September school year in priority districts was confirmed by Elisabeth Borne. The measure should allow “better educational support” in neighborhoods where a higher proportion of school dropouts are observed. Still on the subject of school, the Prime Minister recalled that from the start of the school year in September 2024, reception of students will be ensured from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day in priority education networks (REP and REP).
The social plan presented by the Prime Minister must also address the quality of life in priority neighborhoods, in which housing is often degraded. The Ministry of Housing estimates that 700 condominiums located in these neighborhoods are particularly affected and some are even unsanitary. “Their renovation must be a priority” assured Elisabeth Borne, announcing a bill relating to a major rehabilitation plan “by the end of the year”. These renovations will focus in particular on energy poverty, a central subject of the ecological transition.
An ecological transition which must also take place in working-class neighborhoods thanks to the Resilient Neighborhoods program which extends to 24 new cities or communities: Amiens in the Somme, Miramas in Bouches-du-Rhône or even Béziers in Hérault. In the Ile-de-France region, several departments are concerned with Colombes in Hauts-de-Seine, Valenton in Val-de-Marne, Savigny-sur-Orge in Essonne, Montereau in Seine-et-Marne as well as as Sevran, Clicy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil in Seine-Saint-Denis.
