Good and bad students of the SRU law: the Foundation's 2011 prize list
An assessment of article 55 of the SRU law which stipulates that municipalities must have at least 20% council housing available on their territories.
Over the period analysed by the Foundation (2000-2009), the municipalities where the SRU law is applicable contributed to the financing of 195 873 social housings, the equivalent of 29% of the national production over the same period.
This conclusion comes to strengthen the decisive role played by the SRU law in the development of social housing offers, even if the fraction of highly social housing remains too limited in comparison with the magnitude of the existing needs.
A detailed assessment of each municipality by the Foundation Abbé Pierre shows that 343 out of the 682 surveyed municipalities did not comply with their adjustment objectives (50.3%). 175 fulfilled less than half of their production objectives and 9 did not finance any social housing over the concerned period.
Out of the 682 municipalities, 300 have less than 10% of social housing available and 109 of these 300 have less than 5%. The Foundation remarks that the towns with less than 10% council housings are often small towns (less than 10 000 residents in 82% of the cases).
The Foundation calls for the strengthening of the SRU law
- By increasing the minimum to 25% social housing for all concerned municipalities,
- By multiplying by 3 the solidarity contributions in case of non-compliance with the law
- By implementing the Right of First Refusal allowing the Prefect to take the place of municipalities that do not fulfil their obligations,
- By withdrawing the rights to building permit from the mayor and giving them to the Prefect when the municipality continuously refuses social housing operations.