THE Valencia region is set to get a new law which aims to cut red tape over permission to build properties on urban land.
The regional government has drafted legislation which it says is needed to simplify bureaucracy in land management.
Critics have voiced concern that the law will lead to a reduction in land for much-needed social housing- something the administration has denied.
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The current law was introduced in 2014 with two modifications over the last decade.
It aimed to stop urban planning excesses which were prominent during the start of the century- leading to a string of corruption cases.
The changed law will see greater flexibility in urban land management including the scrapping of a building license for public-private collaboration projects as well as work by municipalities and individual owners.
The government says procedures will therefore be made more straight-forward and will cut delays to construction.
The new law also simplifies the use of non-developable land as well as regulating thousands of pre-existing buildings that were not legalised.
Though such properties will not be made legal, individual orders will be made that guarantee their safety.
A former architect and urban planner in Valencia, Gerardo Roger, told the El Pais newspaper that the measure would cause ‘too much deregulation which in many cases would be undesirable’.
He is concerned that important safeguards for urban planning are being ‘readjusted’.
They include an economic viability report for a project to work out the capital gains generated and which guarantees ‘public participation’ in getting benefits.
He claims there will be a reduction in land reserved for social housing and for facilities like a school or library.
Meanwhile, Valencia’s former Urban Planning minister- the socialist Maria Jose Salvador- has said the new law might reduce bureaucracy but would bring fewer guarantees and less legal certainty.
“It is one more step in ensuring new housing is done for business and not for guaranteeing people’s rights,” he stated.
The region’s Land Ministry said changes had to be made because the current law is ‘excessively rigid and slow’, but insisted that there will not be a ‘free for all’.
It added that percentage allocations will not be changed for social housing but simply how land will be allocated for it within an individual municipality.
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