‘Regularization’ of 300,000 homes in Andalucía is a ‘scandal of incalculable consequences’

Marbella

SEVILLE – A new decree on the legalisation of otherwise illegal homes in Andalucía has been called a ‘guarantee of savage urbanism’ by the environmental pressure group Ecologistas en Acción (Environmentalists in Action). These homes were built on what was officially classified as ‘non-buildable land’ (SNU, Suelo No Urbanizable), and the new decree is ‘a fiasco that will have serious legal, territorial, environmental, social and economic consequences [that attempt against] the general interest of the citizenry’, according to the NGO. When the Junta de Andalucía asked SNU for it opinion on the proposed decree, Ecologistas en Acción sent in their own proposals which would eliminate the principal attraction to building on agricultural land, which would be extremely profitable to developers. The Junta never replied nor consulted them again. Below we have summarised the main arguments presented by the SNU.

1.    A matter of names. Although the Junta insists on the opposite, the decree is in fact an ‘amnesty with a prize for the offender’. It is an amnesty that recognizes the buildings as an offence, but it eliminates the ‘nature of the crime’. It also grants these illegal homes a legal standing throughout Andalucía – for example, they can be registered with the Property Registry, which they could not before. In other words it creates a legal precedent that will be very difficult to avoid in the future.

2.   Environmental impact. The Junta itself acknowledges that these buildings are illegal, that they have ‘invaded’ millions of square metres, in many cases on supposedly protected land, that are largely unsustainable from the environmental point of view: the amount of natural resources they need (water, energy, land) as well as being highly pollutant in terms of visual impact, garbage, residual waters, and so on.

3.   Economic impact. The Junta insists that this decree is aimed at having all the illegal buildings pay the taxes that would have been due if they had been built legally. Their contribution to regional and local coffers would be substantial. And it would give legal access to water and electricity, which many such urbanizations do not have at present.

     

     Yet the ‘illegals’ were constructed with the approval and backing of local authorities: roads were built for them, electricity lines supplied, searches for water … all of it with public money, sometimes under the guise of ‘rural improvements’.

     

     In any case, says the NGO, it is not true that taxes will be paid: the decree only demands that certain taxes are paid, a figure that will be set by each local government. It is thus predictable that a Town Hall that allowed these buildings to be constructed and wants to stay in power will be ‘tolerant’ with voters and seek taxes that are not too demanding. However, SNU says that these taxes will never cover the cost of future services such as roads, street lighting, transport, postal services, sewage, garbage collection, etc. that residents and owners will have every right to demand.