The appeal argues that this decision renders ineffective in Aragon a tool provided for under Spain's national Housing Law to act in municipalities facing a particularly high risk of insufficient affordable housing supply. "Denying municipalities that request it the possibility of examining whether declaring a stressed zone actually makes sense seems to us to be a political and legal aberration," Government Delegate Fernando Beltrán said.
The Aragon regional government refused to process stressed housing zones because it considered that this option "reduces and harms the rental supply" and believed that the 7,000 publicly funded homes being developed would meet demand. The Government Delegation viewed the decision negatively. "The housing policy currently needed must activate every tool that allows the right to housing to be genuinely exercised. With this decree, we are depriving people who need these homes of opportunities," Beltrán said.
NO PROCESSING UNTIL "SCIENTIFIC REPORTS" EXIST
The challenge focuses on the formula chosen by the Aragon regional government to keep applications blocked: the agreement establishes that they will not be processed until there are "scientific reports" contradicting the negative effects attributed to stressed zones. "But it does not clarify what should be understood as a scientific report, who should prepare it, what methodology should be used, what effects it should analyze or when that condition will be considered fulfilled," the Government Delegation said.
The appeal also questions how the decision was adopted. "The Aragon regional government's agreement was approved without any hearing or public information procedure being recorded, despite its consequences for citizens and municipalities," it states. The Government Delegation considers this omission particularly serious because the measure directly affects local authorities: town halls are the ones facing specific problems in their housing markets and are now left without any effective possibility of initiating these procedures.
The Government Delegation says that "the appeal does not seek the automatic designation of any stressed zone in Aragon, but challenges the fact that the regional government has decided that none can even be examined." "The Aragon regional government must reconsider the application of this decree. We invite it to allow, through legal channels, the implementation of another set of tools," Beltrán stressed.
