United we can see "essential" include in the anti-crisis decree the freezing of rents

The Government plans to approve at tomorrow’s meeting of ministers the extension of the so-called anti-crisis shield that expires on December 31 and that has allowed until now, among other things, to lower the price of the transport pass, the VAT on electricity or increase non-remunerative pensions. This package was negotiated in June and has entailed an estimated cost of 9,000 million euros, which is added to the 6,000 million of the first plan, approved in March to respond to the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine, which was ending at that time. to burst.

Negotiations for the third renewal of these measures began several weeks ago. At the beginning of December, Yolanda Díaz convened a “negotiating commission” with the majority partner of the Government with the aim of including a series of measures in the royal decree that is now being negotiated. The second vice president of the Government then asked to work to alleviate the effects of inflation in the shopping basket and freeze mortgages. She also proposed going further in measures to protect rent increases.

At that time, EH Bildu had reached a budget agreement with the Executive that planned to extend the 2% limit to the revaluation of rents, which until the first anti-crisis decree was linked to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Díaz raised the demands in this matter and asked the socialist party to include in the decree the freezing of the rental price in the renewal of the contracts that are signed from now on, a measure similar to the one agreed upon during the pandemic.

Almost a month after the negotiating commission was opened and less than a day after the Council of Ministers from which the decree will be held, the negotiations are currently blocked, according to sources from United We Can. While the conversations about the content of the royal decree are taking place, the Minister of Labor has written a tweet to emphasize the priorities of her space. “It is essential to give guarantees to workers in these uncertain times: prohibit dismissal or guarantee relief contracts, but also protect against increases in the price of housing or food”, she stated.

In parallel, the secretary of the Podemos Organization, Lilith Verstrynge, stated this Monday in statements to the media that these conversations are being “difficult”. “We believe that it is very important to extend the social shield. It is not being an easy negotiation. We propose some essential measures so that families have a better economy: freeze rents and freeze mortgages at a variable rate, reduce the transport pass to 50% or create a check for 300 euros to pay for the shopping basket and food ” , said the Secretary of State for the 2030 Agenda, who has insisted that “the priority is that these measures go ahead”.

Although he has affirmed that the two coalition partners are negotiating “the entire package”, these four measures “are essential” for them, and especially, according to formation sources, the freezing of rents to avoid disproportionate increases.

The problem, they explain, occurs when a rental contract expires and both parties want to renew it, because the owner is free to demand a new price from the tenant and, according to alerts from the confederal formation, in recent months there have been increases of 20 or 30%. The tenant then finds himself in the position of accepting this increase or looking for another option in an increasingly stressed market.

From the Ministry of Transport, on which the regulation of rents depends, they limit themselves to defending that the Government has already promised to extend the 2% limit for the annual revaluation of leases and that we will have to wait for the end of the meeting of this Tuesday to find out what additional measures are included.