Andorra la VellaThe municipality of Andorra la Vella has approved this Thursday, with the favorable votes of the majority and the opposition, the regulation of economic benefits in terms of housing.
As Maria Nazzaro, Minister of Social Affairs, Joventu and Espai Ciutadà , has detailed, six types of aid are planned: one for “accessibility” to housing; another for the payment of some rent installments; another also “thoughts for some non-payment, in order to avoid eviction and thus avoid a wheel of greater social exclusion of these families”; another for the promotion of intergenerational flats, a modality that the common people want to promote and also another aid designed for the purchase of household appliances.
As Nazzaro has highlighted, these aids can be requested from the publication of the ordination in the BOPA and the first evaluations will be made. He has also specified that in view of next year’s budget, an item of between 100,000 and 200,000 euros is foreseen to deal with it. “We don’t want to supplement the government’s aid, on the contrary, what we really want with these aids is to reach those much more specific cases and those much more specific cases that a general legislation cannot contemplate”, said Nazzaro.
Nazzaro has remarked that aside from the direct coordination with the Ministry of Social Affairs that already exists today, one of the things that will be required to be able to opt for these aids is to have an unfavorable criterion for State aids, ” whatever the reason.” Therefore, the council will analyze these unfavorable grants and the specific situation, since it has recalled that often these Government grants value the income of the previous year and there are circumstances that may have changed in that time and what the council intends is arrive at “these assumptions”. The head of Social Affairs of the municipality of Andorra la Vella has emphasized that this is a short-term measure, “very welfare-oriented” which, she admitted, “is not the solution” but that it must be complemented with the others actions that the majority want to take forward. With regard to the operation, he has stated that the amounts of the specific aid have not been marked and that it will be a commission with the two councilors of Social Affairs and Housing and the technicians who will verify the previous assessment made by the social care technician.
Despite the favorable vote of the opposition, David Astrié has assessed that it is a “good initiative” and similar to the one they had in the program that focused on aid for emancipation, but he has remarked that “a previous dialogue would have been necessary with the Ministry of Social Affairs so that there would be a rapprochement” so that “this program has a slightly more global and more integrative context” and he remarked that he was surprised that “one of the requirements was to have the unfavorable statement of the ministry of Social Affairs”. In this sense, he has defended that the joint work should go in the direction of avoiding “redundancies and also inequalities”, since he has remarked that the question may be why a citizen of Andorra la Vella “can have aid” which is not in another parish. “It’s not serious”, he said, and defended that for better collaboration and efficiency it would have been better if the talks with Social Affairs had taken place before the ordination went ahead.
The issue of housing has been the protagonist in the framework of the Andorra la Vella town council this Thursday and in this sense, it has also been decided, unanimously, to start the procedures for the dissolution and liquidation of the Jovial SLU society, established between the common and the private foundation Carles Maestre Pal. The Minister for Digital Transformation and Sustainability and Housing, Marc Torrent, has stated that with this action, it is “a first step” to “improve the internal management that is currently being carried out at Jovial”, as he recalled that the reports have shown that if it were not for the contribution of the common this would be a bankrupt society. In addition, what is sought is to improve its management, its economic, technical and administrative efficiency and “give it a sense or a coherence in these homes, because in the end it is very good to develop housing policies, but then you also have to maintain them”, stated Torrent, who specified that at the same time one of the changes being analyzed is that the relationship between the administration and the users is based on public and not private law and that it is also works on the modification of the regulation.
As part of the debate on housing, and precisely when the point was being debated on the ratification of the agreement between the Government and the municipality for the transfer of the plot of Cedre signed this Monday, Astrié asked the Consul Major , Sergi González “consistency”, since he reminded him that when the previous mayor wanted to promote the project at this point, he regretted that it was not the corporation that assumed the cost and told him that this shows that when he was consul “things look different.” González replied that it was true that he had made those demonstrations, but he framed them in a context in which the opposition did not receive the necessary information and he also claimed the work that the current majority has done in eleven months, a few words to which was joined by the Minister of Finance, Joaquim Miró, who questioned what the previous majority had done. Astrié has claimed the transfer to the Government of the plot of Borda Nova and, precisely, to have started the Cedre project.
Revive Program
Already in the turn of the questions from the media, the Minister of Housing has also been questioned by the Reviu program, since precisely this Thursday was the end of the deadline for the owners to propose a project. Torrent recalled that it was “a first phase of going to explore the market” in order to be able to talk to the owners in order to have firm projects that can be shaped by next year. He has stated that there are “a lot of ongoing conversations” and that they have “solid proposals” about which he did not want to give details, but which could “materialize this year”.
Improvements to sources
Within the framework of the common council, a credit transfer of 100,000 euros has been approved to improve the collection of water from the colorful fountains of the Rotonda. The consul major has detailed that “there was a bad conception” of the catchments and that what has been wanted is to optimize. So what is sought is to improve this catchment also with the intention of making the maintenance more optimal. And he has detailed that this maintenance was “conceived with some rules of the game” that make the tasks very complicated and what is sought is to also be able to reduce costs “both economic and hours”. In this regard, he recalled that the monthly cost is 6,000 euros. And to questions about whether these works could not be imputed to the concessionaire, which councilor Miquel Canturri has formulated, he replied that it is necessary to “separate” what happened in the summer from what is being done now. González has also stated, to journalists’ questions about the events of the summer, that the negotiations are “on the right track”.
The green light has also been given to a credit supplement worth 500,000 euros for the creation of a revolving car park for cars and motorhomes, and a pupillage for motorhomes, a park area for dogs and a picnic park on the plot rented on the Old Ral Road. As detailed by the Consul Major, more than 130 spaces for vehicles and between 25 and 30 for motorhomes are under review and fifteen on rotation.
On the other hand, in the common council session it was also put on the table, to questions from the opposition, that work continues to offer a joint public transport system with Escaldes-Engordany and that in view of the next year there could already be something new.