(cont. from § 6) Property Law (cont. CU8)
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
MP considers that the housing allowance fails in its housing policy goal because families with low incomes are forced to move to increasingly smaller homes to manage their upkeep 1. MP argues that the focus has been on construction rather than on affordability, which has not improved the situation for households with low incomes 1. For the green transition to succeed, active work for new housing is required and the hidden housing supply must be activated 1. MP considers that the government should appoint an inquiry into the rules in the Real Property Formation Act to create opportunities to release smaller properties with residential buildings for sale 1.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Märta Stenevi (MP)
Madam Speaker! Last autumn, the Swedish National Audit Office conducted a review of how the housing allowance meets its two parliamentary-mandated goals: the family policy goal and the housing policy goal. When I read the report, I was first puzzled. The Swedish National Audit Office stated that the family policy goal is being achieved. This is a picture that stands in stark contrast to the reality we face across the entire country, a reality where more and more people find it increasingly difficult to manage their livelihood on a full-time salary. But then I read on and realized why the Swedish National Audit Office came to this conclusion. Because politics for a long time has failed families with children and low incomes, they have been forced to solve the situation themselves, and they have done so by moving into increasingly smaller homes. When the money no longer suffices for food, a single mother will not stop paying the rent, but she will seek out cheaper accommodation, which for the most part also means a smaller home. The housing allowance thus completely fails to reach the housing policy goal of good housing when families with low incomes crowd into far too small homes to manage their livelihood.
Madam Speaker! We will debate housing policy later this spring. But I can already state that after the ten years that have passed since I first began working with housing policy, back then as a municipal councillor in Malmö, the focus is still mainly on construction and not on affordability. During these ten years, hundreds of thousands of new homes have been built. But the affordability for households with low incomes has not increased, and thus the situation for these groups has not improved, but rather the opposite. I look forward to continuing this discussion further ahead. But let us now conclude the debate on property rights that we paused before the question period.
Madam Speaker! If the green transition in the northern counties is to contribute to strong communities, active work for new housing is required. In addition to the need to build new housing, the hidden housing supply also needs to be activated. In many places in the country, there are residential buildings that stand vacant and decay despite the existence of potential homebuyers or tenants. In some cases, it is because the property owner bought the property to cultivate the land or the forest without having an interest in the houses on the estates and that they also shrink from the process that a property reorganization can entail. Complicated rules and an unpredictable outcome cause many property owners to instead let the housing decay when they themselves have no use for them.
Miljöpartiet considers that the government should appoint an inquiry to review the rules in the Real Property Formation Act regarding the design of combined, agricultural, and forestry properties in order to create increased opportunities to release smaller properties with residential houses for sale.
I therefore move for the approval of reservation 4 in the report.
The deliberation was hereby concluded.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.