National Council for Environment and Sustainable Development doesn’t agree with basis for law change
CNADS, the National Council for Environment and Sustainable Development says that statistical information does not indicate that the shortage of urban land is a generalised problem throughout the country.
Issuing a negative opinion on the decree-law that will technically green-light construction on rural land from the end of this month, the council’s viewpoint adds to the weight of feeling expressed by environmental organisations, experts in land management and many others.
According to the government, the document that amends the Legal Framework for Territorial Management Instruments is intended to make land more available for construction, facilitating “the creation of housing solutions that meet the criteria of controlled costs and affordable sales”.
The aim is to promote “greater social equity” and allow “Portuguese families to have access to decent housing”.
When it announced the decision, the government mentioned the possibility of building on land classified as rustic and land classified as National Ecological Reserve (REN) and National Agricultural Reserve (RAN), although it said that “its most critical areas” would be safeguarded.
But, in its unanimous opinion, CNADS challenges the very basis for the law change. It says it recognises that the scarcity of urban land can contribute to rising house prices – especially for more vulnerable populations and also young people – but statistical information does not indicate that this scarcity is a widespread problem throughout the country.
Also on the basis of available data, CNADS says that the solutions put forward by the government, even for cases where there is no land for urbanisation, “do not meet the necessary conditions for objectives to be achieved”.
“On the contrary, the evidence indicates a high risk of worsening the existing situation in terms of housing prices and also of triggering damaging side effects in terms of urbanisation, the environment, society and public spending”.
This is very much what is being said by other detractors – all of whom believe the law change will simply add to the risks of property speculation.
For CNADS, as well as being “based on assumptions not properly grounded in empirical evidence”, the government’s proposal “reveals an anachronistic vision of “city-making”, incompatible with the priorities and challenges of contemporary societies in the face of sustainable development”.
CNADS adds that the proposal is in “frontal contradiction” with the so-called “European model of urban intervention” – enshrined in multiple policy documents and programmes of “European territorial cooperation, to which Portugal is a signatory and in which it actively participates”.
Where things go from here depends on the debate upcoming in parliament on Friday (January 24).
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
Source material: LUSA
