The state will allocate 1.2 billion euros to update HLM energy sieves

HLM’s new massive plan, this time directed against energy sieves. Housing Minister Patrice Vergriete announced this Thursday a plan to allocate 1.2 billion euros over three years to help IED organizations combat energy sieves.

“To support you in the energy transition, (…) the government has decided to create a social housing renovation fund worth €1.2 billion over the next three years. This fund is intended to support around 120,000 energy upgrades per year in social housing and gradually increase to 150,000,” Housing Minister Patrice Vergriete said on Thursday at the closing of the SVU congress in Nantes.

On Wednesday evening, the Union Social Housing (USH), a confederation of social landlords, approved a list of proposals that were only sent to it on Sunday from the office of Housing Minister Patrice Vergriete. “An agreement that marks the common commitment of the state and the SVU movement to jointly address this dual challenge of reconstruction and production,” the minister praised.

“Today you offer us support for the ecological transition in the amount of 1.2 billion over three years, improvement of production credits in the amount of 8 billion, preservation of the PTZ (interest-free loan, editor’s note) for social inclusion: your proposal is serious. We accept responsibility,” USH President Emmanuelle Causs said at the final plenary session of the congress on Thursday in Nantes.

Landlords are asking for more permits for new construction

This budget commitment should include the Government’s amendment to the Finance Bill 2024. It should therefore enable landlords to meet statutory deadlines for the removal of heat sinks. The Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) should also increase its support for the HLM world by committing an additional €150 million to housing and transforming priority areas.

It should also, through its subsidiary Banque des Territories, offer better loans for social housing and more loans for intermediate housing – at regulated rents but higher than for social housing. Finally, together with the Ecological Transition Agency (Ademe), it will provide subsidized loans to connect HLM to city heating networks and develop renewable energy in social housing.

In total, these beneficial loans are equivalent to €650 million in savings for social landlords, Emmanuelle Causset estimates. Other, more technical requirements of the IED world were also taken into account, such as maintaining interest-free lending in its current terms for social access to property, while it should be tightened up for the general public.

The agreement is quite surprising as discussions have dragged on for months and the SVU world regularly criticizes the government for cutting budgets to its detriment. On the other hand, the “confidence pact” that Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne hoped for when she took office in Matignon is not yet in place.

“We asked for many billions, we have several millions… and this is good news, not enough, but good news,” summed up Valerie Fournier, president of the Federation of Private Social Landlords (ESH). USH, Emmanuelle Causs said, would prefer a longer-term commitment from the executive branch that would not force it to renegotiate every year to obtain favorable budget decisions.

Another hole in the racket: the lack of decisive action to revive social housing production, in free fall, with fewer than 85,000 new HLM approvals planned for 2023. According to a study commissioned by USH, 198,000 new housing units should be built as social services. per year to respond to major demographic trends and reduce levels of poor housing. And the number of households waiting for social housing has never been higher: 2.42 million, including 1.63 million in the first allocation.