Planning and construction

Roger Hedlund (SD)

Mr. Speaker! Today we are discussing planning and construction here in the chamber. Much has been done in this area, and much is being done. We have an intensive spring ahead of us here in the chamber when it comes to debating issues concerning housing policy.

We have, among other things, introduced support to produce more detailed plans for small house developments and mapping of buildable land. We have also presented the major bill on a new regulatory framework for building permits, which gives many homeowners greater freedom over their property and an opportunity to use it in a simpler, more efficient way. The costs for developing properties are also decreasing. A question that is on the table for upcoming consideration concerns more modern building rules to favor increased competition and increased construction.

These are just a few examples of all the reforms that the government, together with the Tidö parties, has implemented in this area. However, we need to continue working with the area of planning and construction moving forward and develop a number of changes to create the conditions for planning for new housing. I see opportunities to look more closely at the Nordic market, at the processing issues, at the appeals process, and at regional planning throughout the country.

When it comes to, for example, regulations and standards, we need to create conditions for the Nordic market so that we enable more companies to sell their products and services in a larger market. In doing so, we also create conditions for increased competition and give more citizens the opportunity to demand what is being built.

The processing issues always need to be reviewed. It is about creating a more efficient planning process. Here we clearly see an opportunity to influence how quickly the construction can be carried out, and on that point, it is impossible to avoid the discussion on appeal processes, which we know are part of the hurdle in the work to achieve faster housing planning. I see an opportunity to jointly develop an investigation to be able to work with these issues, for this is an area that to a fairly large extent could influence the planning of the housing construction that we see is needed.

Regional planning is today standard in Stockholm, Skåne, and Halland counties, where housing construction is planned on a regional level. This means that one can weigh in the work with infrastructure and a number of other important issues in a county perspective. It is something we would like to see developed across the whole country and not just in these three counties. It could make Sweden stronger if the planning of infrastructure and coordination regarding housing construction took place in a larger perspective than just at the municipal level.

Our cultural environments and the aesthetics we use when building housing is an area that needs to be prioritized. This absolutely needs to be worked on in a comprehensive way. We need to strengthen cultural competence in the municipalities, introduce cultural planning, and review citizen influence over the housing and communities that are being built. We also need a mapping to secure our historical buildings and environments in the municipalities.

When we strengthen the cultural competence in the municipalities, we can also ensure that we build what is demanded, that is, build residential environments that are beautiful and that harmonize with the culture and history that exists in the area. Cultural planning could result in fewer conflicts during new production and greater harmony in our Swedish society. Here, it cannot be avoided, Mr. Speaker, that the citizen dialogue is an important tool to both reduce the appeals process and create a harmonious society where citizens are given influence over both art and new production.

We need to continue investigating an architectural program that could be an intermediate step between the comprehensive plan and the detailed plan. I believe that the introduction of such an intermediate step would enable smoother planning that harmonizes with the citizens' wishes.

The mapping of the historical buildings and environments that should be preserved in the municipalities needs to be strengthened, and we need to create the conditions to carry it out. These environments must not be lost during various developers' work in the municipalities. In addition to this, I believe that we need to have a sanction fee for those developers who cross the line in these cultural environments.

Mr. Speaker! Safety is crucial for our future societies and residential environments. It is impossible to avoid the fact that we always need to keep crime prevention and safety creation in mind when we plan future processes in the work with new housing and residential environments.

Here we need to work to a greater extent with the actors who have knowledge of this. For example, we need to involve the police in the work. We need to support the municipalities in their area planning and implement a national action plan that the municipalities can have as a basis for creating safe residential environments, both where housing has already been built and in future environments.

Mr. Speaker! With this, I support the proposal in the report that is on the table today.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Malcolm Momodou Jallow (V)

Mr. Speaker! The report we are debating today does not only address the issue of planning and construction, but also the question of what kind of country we want to live in and what kind of future we want to leave behind.

Let me be clear from the very beginning: We are not just building houses, Mr. Speaker – we are building societies. That is what we do in the Committee on Civil Affairs. When we make decisions on planning and construction, we do not just decide where walls and roofs shall stand, but we decide how people shall live – how they shall live, how they shall grow up and how they shall age. That is why this area requires responsibility, morality and long-term perspective.

The government has, however, chosen another path – a path where the market rules and the human being is pushed aside. It is a path where the citizens' influence shrinks and the construction companies' power grows. It is in that way that the most important thing is forgotten, Mr. Speaker: We do not just build houses, we build societies.

Mr. Speaker! Democracy in planning is being eroded. Planning should empower people, not marginalize them. It should be about creating influence, not taking it away from people. But in this report, everything that would make the process more legally secure for ordinary people is rejected. Power moves further away, democracy shrinks, and the market applauds.

Mr. Speaker! We in Vänsterpartiet say: This is not how you build a country. This is not how you create faith in the future. As I said, we are not just building houses; we are building societies.

Let us talk about the climate, Mr. Speaker! It is the silent, screaming point. The climate crisis is no longer knocking at the door but is already sitting in the living room. Yet, all motions linking construction to the climate goals are dismissed, and all demands for energy efficiency, climate-smart planning, and fossil-free heating are struck out. It is like looking our children in the eyes and saying "We didn't have time" or "We couldn't manage" when the truth is that the government chose not to act.

We in Vänsterpartiet know what is at stake. When you build sustainably, you do not just build environments, you build societies that last for generations.

We see an everyday life in crisis, Mr. Speaker, and the government's blind spot. Rosenbad does not notice this, but out in reality, the housing crisis is brutal. Households are forced to borrow money to pay the rent. Children are evicted in the middle of the school term, vulnerability grows and inequality deepens.

The figures do not lie. Last year, 824 children became homeless. In Sweden, one of the world's richest countries, 824 children were left without security or a home. This is a moral failure and a political betrayal that we are seeing. This is proof of what happens when one forgets the fundamental truth that my speech is built upon, Mr. Speaker: We do not just build houses, we build societies.

Mr. Speaker! For the Left Party, a home is a right, not a luxury good or an investment object. The government mocks the idea that a home is a human right, but let us speak plainly: Without a secure home, everything falls. Without a home, there is no freedom, integration, or equality. Without a home, there is no plan for the future. Without a home, people cannot move to where the jobs or the education are.

The Right does everything to downplay the issue, because if housing is not a right, inequality becomes a choice – not a failure. For us, however, housing is the very foundation of building society. As I said just now, Mr. Speaker: We are not just building houses, we are building communities.

Sweden is changing fundamentally and in a dangerous direction. We see a Sweden that is changing at a rapid pace – a society where people are deported despite ten years in the country, where children are torn from their family, their classroom and their friends, and where the wrong skin color or religion makes people less worthy of protection. It is not a safe society. It is a cold society, and cold societies are built by cold politics.

We see how the government has built a market paradise for the rich while ordinary people live in a nightmare. Let us look at the tax deduction or at the subsidies for those who already have money – for the richest. Just last year, it was 70 million kronor that did not go to Swedish construction workers who lost their jobs, to struggling construction companies that went bankrupt, or to building housing in Sweden. Instead, these funds went to foreign companies renovating Swedes' vacation homes in Spain.

We have seen tax cuts for the rich and subsidies for detached houses where money already exists, but a total unwillingness to build rental apartments that ordinary people can afford. That is not how you build security. That is how you build segregation. But we know the truth, Mr. Speaker: We are not just building houses, we are building societies.

Mr. Speaker! The Left Party has clear, progressive, and well-thought-out alternatives. We want democratic planning that strengthens people, not the market. We want regional housing planning where all municipalities take responsibility – including the wealthy ones. We want climate requirements in every detailed development plan, because the future begins with construction. We want mobility before parking and cities that put people before cars. We want state investments in housing that ordinary people can afford. We want real homes – not market concepts.

This is not impossible, Mr. Speaker, but it is necessary. It is not radical, but it is reasonable. It is not utopian, but it is the way forward with the Left Party's policy. We in the Left Party do not just build houses, but we build societies.

Mr. Speaker! I and the Left Party say: We are not just building houses, we are building societies. That sentence is the entire core of my criticism of the Tidö government's policy. Right now, the government is building a Sweden where children are evicted; 824 children were evicted last year, as I mentioned. Ordinary people are forced to borrow to pay the rent. The climate crisis is ignored in every decision. Segregation is increasing. People are deported after ten years in the country. Wrong skin color or religion costs people their security.

This is not a mistake, Mr. Speaker, but it is the result of political choices and political decisions. Let us be clear: The Right does not build societies. They build markets. They build insecurity. They build divides. They build hatred and racism.

Sweden deserves better. Sweden deserves to be a country where housing is a right, where the climate is prioritized, where children never become homeless, where all municipalities – not just the poor ones – take responsibility, and where we build security, equality, and faith in the future.

We in Vänsterpartiet know this: When we build rental apartments that people can afford, we build societies. When we plan for the climate, we build societies. When we put people before the market, we build societies.

It is time to reclaim the construction of society, Mr. Speaker. It is time for political decency and accountability. It is time to build the Sweden that we know is possible. We are not just building houses, Mr. Speaker, we are building societies.

Sweden can do better than this. Sweden is better than this, but that requires politics that sees people and not markets. That requires politics that builds security, not insecurity. That requires politics that builds the future, not uncertainty. Above all, Mr. Speaker, understanding of this is required: We are not just building houses, we are building societies.

I would like to move for approval of the Left Party's reservation 3.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

David Josefsson (M)

Mr. Speaker! Today marks four years since Russia unprovokedly launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We have all seen terrifying eyewitness accounts of bombings of residential areas, of massacres, and of attacks against electricity and heating infrastructure. This is not a war where two countries clash, but it is the dictatorship of Russia that has attacked the democracy of Ukraine. It is a war against our way of life, in freedom and democracy. It is a war between good and evil.

We in Sweden stand united behind Ukraine – not only for Ukraine's sake but also for our own. We do it so that we can continue to live in freedom and democracy and so that the Ukrainians can do the same. We stand behind Ukraine so that even such prosaic things as planning and construction can continue to be debated in this chamber, Mr. Speaker.

Seven out of ten Swedes want to live in their own house, but only five out of ten Swedes do. Roughly speaking, this means that two out of ten – every fifth Swede – would like to live in their own house but cannot do so today. This concerns hard-working people who cannot fulfill their housing dreams. This is a direct consequence of that not enough villas and terraced houses have been built, but it is also a consequence of regulations, lead times, and a lack of buildable land having made construction expensive, complicated, and slow.

During the previous parliamentary term, housing policy did not rank particularly high on the agenda for the Social Democratic government. The most common press clippings about the Minister for Housing were about the fact that they had resigned and been replaced by someone new. Construction was focused on quantity, not on quality or on how people wanted to live. The result was billions in subsidies to developers and a lot of smaller apartments that are now difficult to rent out, while there is a shortage of other types of housing.

Mr. Speaker! When the Moderates and the coalition parties received the voters' mandate in the 2022 election, the housing policy was therefore changed. We are four parties who agree both on what the problems look like on the Swedish housing market and on how we can find solutions to these problems. That is different from the Social Democrats, the Left Party, the Green Party, and the Center Party, who do not agree on anything other than that they want to sit in power.

Mr. Speaker! What are the problems that prevent more from being built? In essence, there are three things.

Firstly: The regulatory burden for building new or renovating is today heavy and cost-driving. The installation companies showed in a report recently that approximately one-third of the construction cost for a single-family house went towards fees, taxes, and land price even before the foundation was poured.

Secondly: The lead times for building new [housing] are too long today. Estimates show that on average it takes eight to ten years from idea to when someone can move in. Long lead times mean two things. It means that costs rise. These are costs that the resident ultimately must pay, regardless of whether it is through higher rent or higher price. But it also means that very many homes are not even built.

For the third: We have a shortage of buildable land in Sweden today. It is paradoxical in itself. Sweden is one of Europe's most sparsely populated countries. But we have established so many regulations that it results in a shortage of land where housing can be built.

The consequence of these three problems and of previous governments not having done anything to remedy them is that very many hard-working Swedes cannot fulfill their housing dreams.

Mr. Speaker! The Tidö parties have therefore worked methodically and consistently to solve the problems. In the autumn, the Riksdag decided on an entirely new chapter in the Planning and Building Act regarding building permits. It is now simpler to renovate and extend one's house without having to apply for a building permit. The Government has, in our announcements, proposed simplifications of rules to change both buildings and detailed plans. It shall become easier to convert, for example, offices into housing. We have also implemented changes for student apartments which will mean that more and cheaper student apartments can be built.

Mr. Speaker! The Government has also placed a great focus on reducing waiting times at authorities, including Lantmäteriet. The Government has announced a bill on more efficient and better control during the construction process, something that will also lead to faster processes.

We have appointed an inquiry to review appeals, as we know it is an important reason why lead times become long. The inquiry has now been presented and is out for consultation.

We have also implemented changes to the shore protection and commissioned a broader review of the entire shore protection. Sweden has a long coastline, archipelagos, islands, and rivers, which means that we can actually build near water, but today we have a regulatory framework that makes it very difficult. There are many beaches in Sweden that should be preserved, but there is also a great deal of shoreline that we can actually build on.

The Government has further tasked Boverket with investigating noise regulations at residential properties, as this has become a limitation particularly in densely built-up areas.

Step by step, we are reducing the regulatory burden, shortening lead times, and increasing the buildable land.

Mr. Speaker! These are only the first steps in a larger reform effort so that more housing dreams can become a reality. Seven out of ten Swedes want to live in their own house, but only five out of ten do. The Government has therefore appointed a homeownership commissioner who has been tasked to investigate the conditions for a new homeownership movement and to re-establish garden cities in Sweden.

By reducing the regulatory burden, shortening lead times, and increasing the buildable land, we enable more and more affordable housing. But we also facilitate by standardizing construction processes, for example through type-approved houses, so-called Sverigehus. We do it by reviewing the public costs in connection with house construction. And we do it by encouraging municipalities to establish new garden cities. Then ordinary, hard-working Swedes can also afford their own house. More Swedes can fulfill their housing dreams. More children can have a garden where they can jump on a trampoline.

Mr. Speaker! During this parliamentary term, there have been many headlines regarding reforms and regulatory changes to make it easier to build. The only headline that has not appeared is that the Minister for Housing has resigned and been replaced by someone new.

With that, I move for approval of the committee's proposal for a decision.

(cont.)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)