Response to interpellation 2022/23:189 on green transition and housing supply

Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)

Madam Speaker! Linus Sköld has asked me how I intend to act so that all the labor that is now needed in northern Sweden will also have somewhere to live, and how I intend to facilitate the housing supply in the societal transformation in Kiruna and Gällivare.

To begin with, I want to clarify that I am very keen on there being a well-functioning housing market in the whole country. It is a prerequisite for people's security and quality of life as well as for a competitive economy.

In order to create good conditions for living and residing in the entire country, the Ministry of Rural Affairs and Infrastructure has been established. Housing issues are included there. Municipalities shall be urged and encouraged to increase their planning readiness, especially regarding small houses. Furthermore, the county administrative boards have been tasked, within the framework of their duties regarding social planning and housing, to report on which measures have been implemented in cooperation with the municipalities to promote increased housing construction where there is a shortage of housing.

The County Administrative Boards in Norrbotten and Västerbotten counties shall, according to the mandate in the regulatory letter, offer special planning support to those municipalities facing major planning challenges as a result of large industrial establishments.

As a complement to this, the County Administrative Board in Norrbotten County is tasked with distributing and paying out financial support for innovative and sustainable community construction projects in connection with business establishments and business expansions as well as urban and rural development processes in Norrbotten and Västerbotten counties. This includes Kiruna and Gällivare.

The purpose is to provide the affected municipalities, whose resources for planning for expansion are very limited, better conditions to take advantage of the opportunities for sustainable urban development created through the industrial investments. To promote coordination of state interventions for sustainable community building and shaped living environments in these counties, a coordinator has been appointed.

There is a golden opportunity for northern Sweden to lead the new industrial revolution and become an engine for green innovations that can benefit northernmost Sweden, the entire country, and in the long run, all of Europe. The government will work to seize that opportunity.

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Linus Sköld (S)

Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for the opportunity to debate the housing supply in northern Sweden and the green transition.

The Minister says that this is a golden opportunity, and it is true in every respect. Northern Sweden is the country's great growth hope. That the industry is transitioning its processes to carbon-free technology and that a sustainable industrial production is growing is a matter of great magnitude. But for it to happen, the public sector must back up this transition. The Speaker will forgive me for saying it as it is: It is not enough for the government to point at the municipalities and say that they have to solve it.

Infrastructure investments are needed. Labor is needed. Electricity is needed. So far, the government has abruptly phased out investment support for the construction of affordable rental apartments, cut significantly on adult education places, and threatened to ruin the conditions for offshore wind power, which is the fastest way to expand electricity production as far as can be assessed. Furthermore, they have shown a surprising helplessness when it comes to the electricity price support.

The government presented in a debate article in January that it intended to develop a strategy for northern Sweden. One of the points concerned housing and infrastructure. The government admitted that the housing shortage is one of the main obstacles to more people being able to be recruited to the companies and municipalities in question. Then the government abolished the investment subsidies, which have made it possible to balance the calculations for apartment buildings in large parts of Norrbotten.

This has had dramatic consequences. To the County Administrative Board in Norrbotten County, 18 applications had been submitted in time, meaning before the turn of last year, but had not managed to be allocated funds before the government stopped the support. This means that over 1,000 homes now risk not being built.

The investment grants have also been important for facilitating the societal transformations taking place in Kiruna and Gällivare. The possibilities to build new apartments with reasonable rents have improved. But the government's actions hinder the continuation of this and have created great inconsistencies. In the same construction project consisting of identical houses in the same neighborhood, it may happen that tenants receive very different rent levels. We are talking about thousands of kronor in difference in monthly rent between identical apartments in the same project, as a consequence of the government hastily and whimsically changing what applies.

Madam Speaker! I have no objection to the government giving assignments to the county administrative boards to support housing construction. But the government's own coordinator has assessed that up to 100,000 people need to move to the two northernmost counties in the coming decades. They cannot live in assignments to the county administrative boards. They cannot live in municipal planning readiness. The houses must be built. Does the Minister have any credible ideas to stimulate housing construction in northern Sweden?

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Mikael Eskilandersson (SD)

Madam Speaker! I do not intend to repeat what Housing Minister Andreas Carlson has already emphasized in an absolutely excellent way, but I stood up rather to address what Linus Sköld claimed regarding the investment support.

The Social Democrats always highlight the investment support as the perfect solution and argue that it was phased out too quickly. But if we look at the Social Democrats' budget, we notice that it looks a bit different. The Social Democrats did not themselves allocate sufficient funds to phase out the investment support in any other way, and the Social Democrats definitely did not allocate anything in their budget to preserve the support.

We had a similar debate in the Committee on Civil Affairs at the time of the budget debate last autumn. Then the Social Democrats could not answer why they had not allocated sufficient funds. They had included an expansion of ordering authority in their budget, but there was no money. Ordering authority is not money. Not even money for the 18 applications that Linus Sköld raised was in the budget. There was a lack of 16 billion to complete the applications that existed.

Something sweeping was said about the fact that the figure was not known until the last second, and therefore the Social Democrats had not been able to include it. That may have been the case for the vast majority of parties, but the Social Democrats were in government until late autumn. In that case, it does not hold to refer to the fact that the figure is not known.

The Social Democrats know very well how many billions it would cost to preserve the investment support. That is exactly why they presented a budget where the investment support was not included. Otherwise, all other initiatives in their budget would have practically disappeared, because they would not have been able to afford anything other than the investment support. You cannot have your cake and eat it too.

In his speech, Member Linus Sköld argued that it was wrong to remove the investment support. At the same time, the Social Democrats did not have any money. Either one allocates money for the investment support in their budget, or one admits that it became too expensive and that it is no longer seen as reasonable to spend all these billions on housing that, for the most part, would have been built anyway.

Three things are fundamental for construction: land to build on, the price to build for, and the time it takes to build. These are always needed for something to be built. The investment support is a way to lower the price of construction, but it is a terribly expensive way. Furthermore, it is an unfair way. Therefore, my party went to the election on a platform to remove the investment support as soon as possible.

The Social Democrats' budget for housing policy is not particularly extensive when it comes to Norrland. The word Norrland is not even included in the Social Democrats' housing policy motion. Doesn't it feel a bit presumptuous to stand here and speak warmly for Norrland when one hasn't even included that part of the country in one's own housing policy motion?

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Jimmy Ståhl (SD)

Madam Speaker! Housing policy is not my main business, but I love to follow the property prices. I usually surf onto Hemnet to see how it looks. A long time ago, the property prices in Norrland were very low. One could find properties for 50,000-100,000 while the most expensive were at nearly 500,000. Ahead of this debate, I specifically looked at Kiruna and Gällivare. Judge my surprise when I saw that the prices were between 2.2 and 4.5 million for the few properties that were for sale.

If municipalities choose to establish industries, they must take into account that new jobs require making room for new properties. With low property prices, it would be very unfavorable to build new properties because the costs differ so much. Today, one can build a villa for 1.5 million, provided that the land is cheap.

What makes me happy about the industrial initiatives is that the infrastructure, which is very close to my heart, will be built at a faster pace. The Norrbotniabanan is being built now, and the Inlandsbanan is also an important project to develop. Electric aviation is the aviation of the future with fantastic opportunities. The downside of these initiatives is that they give people the opportunity to travel in and out, which is negative for the municipalities in these areas because one pays tax where one lives, not where one works.

I both hope and assume that both Kiruna and Gällivare have thought things through when they approve the industrial packages for the companies that choose to establish themselves there.

I also see an exciting future. Thanks to Infrastructure Minister Andreas Carlson stopping the high-speed railway, there is an opportunity to look at domestic infrastructure, for example, regional trains in Norrland. This means that one could strengthen the Inlandsbanan and the transverse lines so that one gets good traffic also from the Inlandsbanan and out to the coastal cities.

My question to the Minister for Infrastructure and Housing is: Has one looked a bit deeper into what infrastructure will be required if there becomes a massive establishment in the north? It is not just about housing for industrial workers, but about, for example, schools and healthcare facilities.

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Anna-Caren Sätherberg (S)

Madam Speaker! I become so interested when Norrland is discussed.

Let me comment on the Norrbotniabanan, which the member before me took up. When it comes to that, we have bad experiences from the minister's former government which, after the 2006 election, saw to it that this investment was scaled back.

But fortunately, we see the development in the north now, and the light comes from the north. We see the industry being built up, despite the Moderate Prime Minister in the aforementioned government said that the industry was basically gone.

My concern is that the pace will slow down if the government does not take a collective grip. It is about both infrastructure and housing, but also about energy. We cannot have an energy minister who states that we should not impose steel forests on the Swede, not when the industry says that we must have more wind power here and now.

Norrland, which is the focus of this debate, has used the investment support in a completely fantastic way. I see housing construction in places that have not built housing for 20 years. It has happened at home in Jämtland in Hackås and Svenstavik, places where it is not usually built.

I want to ask the Minister: Is the government removing the investment support because it is not used in the same way in the capital as in the rest of the country?

We see that the housing market is declining, that housing construction is stalling, that layoffs are increasing, that industries are being shut down and that companies are going under. The Minister for Housing's task is difficult and heavy. Measures are needed, and it cannot just be a matter of coordination. There is an interest not only from Norrland in what the Minister for Housing intends to do for an industry that is doing so poorly.

Does the government, together with the Minister for Housing, intend to take a collective grip? In the areas I mentioned, it is about competence supply to the industries, housing construction, and infrastructure. It is also, of course, about ensuring that the whole of Sweden is treated equally, so that Norrland also belongs to Sweden when designing reforms such as electricity support and other matters.

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Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)

Madam Speaker! I know that this is a political area that evokes great engagement. It does so precisely because there are great opportunities with the new industrialization of northern Sweden, which of course benefits northern Sweden but also the whole country and, in the long run, all of Europe.

I will begin by answering the interpellant's question. It is not possible to place this solely on the municipalities. The primary responsibility for housing supply rests with the municipalities, but the situation looks different for the affected locations. The housing shortage is one of the main obstacles to recruiting more people to the relevant companies and municipalities in Norrbotten and Västerbotten. That is why the measures I described in my answer have been taken.

A coordinator has been tasked with promoting the coordination of state interventions for sustainable community building and shaped living environments in Norrbotten and Västerbotten counties. The Government has tasked the County Administrative Board in Norrbotten with distributing and paying out financial support for innovative and sustainable community building projects to the municipalities affected by the transition.

Furthermore, the government has decided on rules regarding time-limited building permits. The temporary regulation is extended by five years until May 1, 2028. A municipality can therefore grant a time-limited building permit for a total of 15 years for a building for residential purposes, and it is important for accelerating construction in northern Sweden, which the coordinator has also pointed out.

There have been five housing ministers in the last eight years. I understand that expectations are very high for the new government's housing minister, but in four months we have overhauled the housing policy, kick-started the work, and pointed out which areas reforms should be developed in when it comes to achieving a more efficient housing policy for increased housing construction.

It is about reforms that increase the availability of developable land, simplify the building regulations, provide incentives for increased housing construction, and shorten lead times. We – I – have met very many during the government's first four months and inventoried the proposals that already exist and that we can move forward with quickly. Some other things take longer.

The question naturally goes back to the interpellants from the recently departed governing party: Why was even more not done to prepare for this expansion when you had eight years to do so? Unfortunately, it has been all too weak when it comes to the pace of reform regarding the structural changes needed to achieve a more efficient housing policy. Now we are changing that and restructuring.

We see great benefits in combining the infrastructure - as Jimmy Ståhl was pointing out - the social planning and the planning of the housing policy in the same ministerial portfolio in the newly established Ministry of Rural Affairs and Infrastructure, where issues regarding regional development also lie. This is a clear signal. The Government has already kick-started the work and much more is underway.

When it comes to the investment support, it is a matter that has been debated in this chamber several times before. I am happy to answer the questions again. It is possible to read the Riksdag's minutes from these debates if one wants to know more, but Mikael Eskilandersson has a point: Why do the Social Democrats not allocate a single krona in their budget to this when they speak so much and so often about the matter?

Regarding the Norrbotniabanan and Member Sätherberg's question, it is well described in an interpellation response from last week. It can also be accessed in retrospect. The government's message is clear: the intensification of the work is underway. Trafikverket has that assignment, and I expect the work to be carried out at a high pace.

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Linus Sköld (S)

Madam Speaker! Both the Minister for Housing and Mikael Eskilandersson need to accept now that they are no longer in opposition. My question to the Minister was whether he has any credible ideas to stimulate housing construction in northern Sweden. I did not hear a single agreement in response. He says that he will overhaul the housing policy, but so far it is just words. There is not even a "what". What is meant by overhauling the housing policy other than abolishing the investment support?

I live in Norrbotten, despite my Scanian roots. There, 8 of the county's 14 municipalities assess that they have a housing shortage. Northvolt in Skellefteå is recruiting, according to its own information, 100 employees per month for the time being. In Kiruna and Gällivare, the communities are to be moved while there is a major housing shortage. As recently as this week, we have been able to read in Dagens Industri that housing construction in northern Sweden is decreasing dramatically. This is, of course, a consequence of the unrest in the world and of rising production costs, but the government's actions regarding the investment support have worsened the situation.

At home in Älvsbyn, the first multi-family house in decades was built thanks to the investment support. In large parts of Norrbotten, it is indeed the case, even in municipalities with extensive housing shortages, that the housing market is weak. This means that the production cost is not covered by the market value.

The person who builds a new villa in Älvsbyn has the same construction cost as someone who builds a similar villa in the state's Mullsjö or, for that matter, somewhere closer to a major city. But when the villa in Älvsbyn is finally finished, it is not worth as much as it cost to build – especially not if it is located outside the central town. This makes it difficult to provide loan financing for both the construction of private homes and larger investments in apartment buildings.

As a result of the pandemic and the war, as has been said, construction costs have increased sharply, and this exacerbates this problem. When production costs increase, the discrepancy between costs and market value becomes larger. Private capital is not invested under such conditions. As a result of the depreciation rules, the municipalities can also not make such a calculation work, and individuals are not allowed to take out loans from the bank to renovate or build new.

Since the Rural Committee in 2017 pointed out the need to facilitate the financing of new construction and reconstruction, several different possibilities have been investigated, for example credit guarantees, rural loans and state top-up loans. The Government, as is known, lacks representation from northern Sweden but now has a unique chance to show that it understands the conditions for those of us who live and work in northern Sweden.

If more housing is to be built in northern Sweden, the government must act. One can then ask the more general question that I just asked: are there any credible ideas in the ministers' or Mikael Eskilandersson's idea banks? What do you want to do? Don't come and scold me – it is you who have the responsibility now! Will the government return with proposals that facilitate housing construction in weak markets, for example, state top-up loans, credit guarantees, or rural loans?

(Applause)

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Mikael Eskilandersson (SD)

Madam Speaker! I note that Linus Sköld continues to talk himself into a frenzy about an investment support for which he did not allocate any money at all. But he is going to get some ideas from me.

We can actually improve and simplify both the price and the time for construction through a different process. The effective way to increase and speed up construction is to have simple, repeatable processes. We Sverigedemokrater launched Sverigehuset in the election. It is a type-approved house that can be built throughout Sweden. We want to move away from having 290 different municipalities have to assess houses according to thousands of different plans. The Socialdemokrater, at one time, investigated type-approved houses but concluded that they did not want it.

Regarding the availability of land that is needed, it is best addressed by reviewing the national interests and changing the shore protection. Especially in northern Sweden, national interests are enormously restrictive. I was in Kiruna to study the relocation of the city, and it was obvious that what restricted the construction most was the availability of land. It was primarily national interests together with the mine's risk area that restricted it.

Much of this could the Social Democrats have solved during their eight years, but nothing happened except that they introduced the investment support, which they do not even want to keep anymore themselves. I note that the Social Democrats had more housing ministers than proposals during the time in government. I have great hopes that the current government will produce more proposals and slightly fewer housing ministers.

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Jimmy Ståhl (SD)

Madam Speaker! Skellefteå was mentioned earlier. There is some difference between Skellefteå and Kiruna and Gällivare. Given the problems that Northvolt has, I came up with another solution that could have been used temporarily. It does take time to build properties.

The cities located along the coast up in Norrland could utilize shipping. Now you think: Shipping? Yes, during the war in Ukraine, for example, Tallink Silja chose to charter out one of its ships as aid for refugees in Poland. They are housing Ukrainian refugees there. In the same way, one can rent cruise ships in the growth regions, if they are coastal. With Silja Serenade or Silja Symphony, one gains access to 986 cabins with nearly 2,850 beds.

In an emergency situation, one can therefore think outside the box until the property has been produced. It does take time to build properties.

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Anna-Caren Sätherberg (S)

Madam Speaker! It is pleasing that the minister in this right-wing government, unlike the previous right-wing government, intends to complete the Norrbotniabanan. But is it not also somewhat symptomatic of the right that one always follows and never leads? Now we hear tones that it might be better for the investments to end up abroad than to end up in Sweden. That is what makes us so incredibly worried.

It is not just through a thought that this is emerging in northern Sweden in Norrbotten and in Västerbotten, but everything is connected. It is connected to the fact that the business sector and the previous government made investments in large industrial projects. We invested in industrial steps and climate steps. We invested in the railway. Much of that the right-wing parties said no to, but now that it works they step forward and say yes, roughly as with the Norrbotniabanan. So we cannot have that. Sweden shall be at the forefront. Northern Sweden is showing the way right now.

Therefore, the question to the Minister for Housing with their area of responsibility is: How are we to get housing construction started also in those locations that will now employ amounts of people and ensure that Sveriges rikes aktiebolag performs even better through these large industrial investments?

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Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)

Madam Speaker! The conditions for housing construction have deteriorated rapidly over the past year due to high construction costs, rising interest rates and energy prices, as well as reduced purchasing power among households. The Government has therefore realigned the housing policy and is at a high pace preparing the work on the identified reforms to be developed during the mandate period.

In my previous post, I pointed out that we would have been in a better position today if the previous government had had more focus on producing the reforms required to maintain the pace of construction when the economy weakens.

We will now work on this in a high tempo. At the same time, several different initiatives for northern Sweden are underway, which I detailed in my interpellation answer. I missed answering Anna-Caren Sätherberg's questions in my previous post, but what we are doing now is taking a collective approach. We are combining infrastructure with housing and planning issues and rural policy in the same department. We have a strategy for northern Sweden where the supply of competence is included, which the Minister for Employment is responsible for. This also includes energy policy, which the Vice Prime Minister and the Minister for Energy are responsible for.

We are working at a very high pace with the reforms we are developing and with regulatory simplifications so that it will be easier to build and so that lead times will be shorter, which makes the costs lower.

Mikael Eskilandersson raised the important issue that more buildable land needs to be made available. We have taken the first step through a mandate to the county administrative boards, which I previously detailed.

We also have an ongoing preliminary study that is to look at national physical planning. This includes, for example, the national interest system in the Environmental Code, where the state's claims to land and water are primarily expressed. The preliminary study looks at how it could be changed to better meet the needs that exist in society today.

When 52 percent of the country's total area is covered by national interests - and to an even greater extent in the northern parts of Sweden, as Mikael Eskilandersson was pointing out - housing construction as an interest will often end up at a disadvantage. This is what the preliminary study shall look into, and it is working at a high pace with that. These are, of course, processes that take some time, because they involve complicated issues.

Parallel to that, we are working at a high pace with other measures, such as interventions that consist of county administrative board assignments. It is extremely important that we maintain a high pace here to meet the need that the interpellor and other members here point out. We are in complete agreement on that, and the government will work at a high pace.

If I get to decide, we will not be replacing the housing minister every other year or even more frequently as the governments have done during the last eight years. Now we can work more collectively, and I look forward to a good dialogue with the Swedish Riksdag also in this regard.

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Linus Sköld (S)

Madam Speaker! I regret, but who is the Minister for Housing next year or even tomorrow is not for the Minister for Housing himself to decide. Let us not take him at his word when he says so.

I hear the Minister saying that this is to happen at a high tempo. It is still very unclear how housing construction is to be stimulated. How the housing policy is organized or where the responsibility lies within the department will not increase the construction rate in Norrbotten. To be honest, people will not be able to live in coordination assignments, county administrative board assignments, or increased planning readiness in the municipalities.

I hear nothing about what the incentives for increasing housing construction should look like - no ideas! The Minister is still answerable. But the transition in northern Sweden still needs its workforce in both the business sector and the welfare sector. If the transition is to happen, the Minister must step forward.

The government has so far not shown an understanding of what the conditions in northern Sweden are like. In this debate, I gave the Minister a unique opportunity to show that he understands northern Sweden's conditions. I regret that he did not take it.

The pace of construction is falling, and production costs are increasing. The situation is not helped by an abolished investment support. Thousands of planned homes now risk not being completed. And the Minister stands here helpless. He talks about which department has responsibility for the issues.

What should the government do to ensure that housing is built in northern Sweden?

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Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)

Madam Speaker! The Government shall produce reforms that increase the availability of buildable land, simplify the building regulations, shorten lead times, and provide incentives for increased construction. I have said that a few times in this interpellation debate.

I must thank for the unique opportunity that Linus Sköld gave me. But it is not actually that unique, as we get many opportunities to discuss this.

One of the questions was: What ideas and what idea bank does the government have? Yes, the ideas were not taken from the previous government's shelves when we entered the department, I can say. I have many ideas. The important thing is reforms, and those are the ones we are producing.

Another question was: Is the government prepared to facilitate housing construction? Yes, that is the very point of the reforms that are to be developed. We will return to this. I look forward to a very good dialogue with Linus Sköld and all other members of the Swedish Riksdag in this regard. We will return to it. You can be sure of that.

The interpellations debate was hereby concluded.

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