The plan presented jointly by home affairs minister  (CSV), housing minister  (DP) and enviornment minister  (CSV) is a follow-up to the first housing stimulus package and the (Syndicat des villes et communes luxembourgeoises). The plan contains some long-awaited measures, a few new ones and some potential controversies.

When it comes to environmental protection, the government is proposing a veritable Copernican revolution by replacing the current ‘micro’ approach with a ‘macro’ approach. The government wants to move from a policy that currently focuses on protecting species and biotopes on a given site to a more holistic environmental protection policy “that aims to consider the state of nature as a whole and not just in relation to a specific site.” This approach is supposed to be “capable of significantly reducing the amount of research work required, speeding up construction and thus saving financial and human resources, while focusing environmental protection efforts on large-scale ecological projects that can generate definite added value for the environment.”

Environmental protection in ‘macro’ mode

With this in mind, the digital assessment and compensation system will be revised. The list of protected species will also be revised. From now on, protected status will be limited to threatened, rare or vulnerable species at national level, and to species protected at European level. Overall, within the construction perimeters, compensatory measures--in short, mitigation measures against the destruction of the habitat of protected species or hunting areas--will be abolished. In return, compensatory measures will be introduced on land owned by the state. These include a ban on the use of pesticides, and an increase in the area under organic farming or biodiversity contracts of 200 hectares per year for five years. An advisory service on the protection and creation of natural environments will be set up within the nature and forestry administration to help developers.

In addition, the grand ducal regulation of 25 August 2021 governing regional landfill sites for inert waste will be repealed as counterproductive. These measures are bound to trigger reactions from political parties and associations that have made nature protection their hobbyhorse.

National building regulations

The other project likely to cause some controversy is the administrative simplification of local planning regulations. The government wants to replace local building regulations with a grand ducal regulation establishing national rules harmonising rules on solidity, safety, health, durability and convenience. A national regulation that would leave the communes some room for manoeuvre in order to assert certain specificities, provided that “this does not compromise the government’s main objective, which is to guarantee consistent harmonisation of building regulations at national level.”

As the process of communal autonomy is one of the cornerstones of the organisation of the state, this new deal is likely to cause teeth to grind, and even provoke head-on opposition from certain mayors. For Gloden, there is no question of undermining this principle; the idea is to offer the communes a “partnership.” To be seen how this works out in practice...

40 shades of simplification

In terms of administrative simplification, the main measures out of the 40 announced are as follows: standardisation of general development plan (PAG) and specific development plan (PAP) procedures; abolition of the environmental assessment for PAPs of less than four hectares; increase in the number of affordable housing units in PAPs for ‘new districts’; simplification of building standards and regulations; adoption of the ‘silence means agreement’ principle for individual authorisations in stages; reinforcement of administrative assistance missions for those involved in construction; and digitisation of procedures. A digital one-stop shop will be set up for submitting applications for planning permission.

One measure was particularly eagerly awaited by the industry: recognition of co-living. Co-living will be included in the types of housing recognised by the PAG.

Creation of experimental urban development zones

Another measure that was eagerly awaited, particularly by the OAI (Ordre des Architectes et des Ingénieurs), was the creation of experimental zones. The aim of these zones is to implement urban planning and innovative projects that are virtually impossible under current building standards and regulations “established according to the precautionary principle.” In these zones, derogations would be admissible. “This will be a definite opportunity to reduce construction costs, by reducing or eliminating certain compulsory equipment and replacing them with alternative solutions based on the principles of ‘low tech’ and ‘less is more.’”

These areas will be established by means of a land use plan (POS) and will be reserved for public utility construction projects (schools, affordable housing, etc.), as well as for urban regeneration projects and the conversion of brownfield sites.

Public-private partnerships for affordable housing clarified

Meisch, in his capacity as minister for housing, outlined the new public-private partnerships for affordable housing.

Three scenarios were put forward. In the first, a developer launches an affordable housing project on private land, which will be leased to a social landlord for a minimum period of 20 years. The social landlord will pay the owner a rent indexed below the market price. The owner will be able to reclaim the property at the end of the occupancy period. Under this system, the developer/owner will be guaranteed the success of his project, as well as his or her income, and will be exempt from the routine maintenance of the homes carried out by the social landlord. “This will free up funds to launch new projects more quickly.” The second type of partnership is a variant of the first, and is designed to enable employers to house their employees.

The third type of partnership involves pilot projects on public land. Here, the state or local authorities make land available to developers for the construction of affordable housing. Once completed, these projects will be acquired and marketed by a public player.

For Meisch, these three schemes--in addition to the VEFA (vente en l’état futur d’achèvement, or sale in future state of completion) acquisition programme launched in October 2023--“will give a further boost to the creation of affordable housing.”

This article was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.