European city leaders want urban policy to be on this year’s ballot papers

Dramatic images of tractors driven up to government buildings by farmers protesting at #European green agriculture policy show rural voices are making themselves heard. #Urban leaders need to make sure they are part of the debate during #elections this year.

Thousands of tractors have brought Berlin’s city centre to a standstill, blocked the A1 motorway between Lille and Paris, and clogged up the streets of Brussels. Farmers are angry at German plans to cut subsidies for diesel in farmyard vehicles, new French regulations and taxes, and Belgian moves to limit emissions of nitrogen, respectively.

Public displays of anger by farmers are nothing new, but they may have an impact in a year when voters go to the polls in June to elect members of the European Parliament. Leaders of the continent’s major cities have realised they need to ensure their concerns are heard, too.

Mayors of cities, presidents of metropolitan areas, and representatives of city associations gathered in Brussels to unveil the so-called Brussels Declaration. Launched on 24 January, the eight-page manifesto calls on all European institutions to adopt an “ambitious and effective European urban policy” to cover the European Council’s next five-year strategic agenda covering 2024 to 2029.

Given that 80% of the EU’s population is projected to be residing in urban areas by 2050, the alliance wants to see a “paradigm shift” towards a greater involvement by cities and local governments in the development of European governance, regulations, programming and funding.

They are clearly fed up with being cut off the decisions making process — or in their technical language, the “subsidiarity principle is inadequate”. They want the needs of cities and urban areas to be taken into account when Brussels and the European Investment Bank allocate funding. Another stand-out demand is for a new dedicated vice-president who would work “horizontally” to streamline the bloc’s city policies.

Sustaining sustainable housing

Whether they see all or any of their demands met will depend as much on the internal political machinations within the Commission as the outcome of the June elections, but new MEPs elected by an urban voters base are certainly more likely to be aware of their constituents’ needs.

The declaration also made clear it wanted a more sustainable urban development agenda and, indeed, their number one policy priority is the promotion of the right to affordable, high quality and sustainable housing. This demand is no surprise: house prices have risen by 47% in the EU between 2010 and 2022. But that average conceals some startling national increases such as in Estonia (+210%), Lithuania (+144%) and Ireland (+84%). Rents have also risen, but at a slower pace — by 18% over the same period — with the sharpest spikes in Estonia (+56%), Hungary (+53%), Lithuania (+49%) and Romania (+47%). 

From a political perspective, one worry is that this could fuel support for far right parties that claim falsely that there is a lack of housing because of the level of immigration. Levels of migration and the shortage of housing played a role in propelling far-right politician Geert Wilders to success in the Dutch general election last year, commentators believe.

The UK also has a longstanding shortage of homes thanks to a failure to deliver a housebuilding programme to match the rises in population levels. This is particularly the case in terms of the construction of social housing.

Despite housing associations (HAs) completing 40,000 homes across the UK in the year to March, and local authorities building 4,000, HAs in England will cut their planned spending on new affordable homes in 2024 in the face of budget pressures.

Britain too has an election this year, which current prime minister Rishi Sunak has indicated will be in the second half of the year. The government has repeatedly missed its targets for new home construction but, rather than pledge to finally meet them, Sunak is reported to be planning to give UK families higher priority for the little social housing that is available.

Even ignoring the xenophobia inherent in the slogan, this would repeat a pattern of failing to address the lack of supply but instead encouraging demand by making it easier for less well-off people. For example, the Help to Buy incentive enabled people in England to buy new homes with deposits of just 5% and a government loan on very favourable terms. However as a House of Lords committee found, this simply pushed up prices further out of reach.

Housing is just one part of sustainable urban development policy, but it is almost a litmus test for how serious politicians are about pursuing that agenda. One can build cycle paths and invest in smart city technology, but if people struggle to be able to buy or rent decent homes, that becomes somewhat irrelevant. So far, the poorly housed have not taken to the streets, but perhaps the actions of Europe’s farmers will inspire them to take copycat actions.