Parliament adopts several measures to simplify urban planning rules

This bill, put forward by Harold Huwart, MP for Eure-et-Loir from the independent Liot group, and supported by the government, proposes to relax the instructions for building permits and planning permission.

It was adopted by 65 votes (PS, Liot, central bloc and LR) against 41 votes (LFI and ecologists).

"Thousands of mayors are exhausting themselves daily trying to unblock construction and development projects, and those involved in the housing and construction world (...) are despairing over the rising costs and delays that our legislation is causing every day," Mr. Huwart lamented from the podium.

"For them, this text, even if limited, is a useful and expected text," he said.

It was the first time that the new Minister of Housing, Vincent Jeanbrun, who had previously sat as a member of parliament on the LR benches, had spoken in his new hat.

But it was his former role as mayor of L'Haÿ-les-Roses (Val-de-Marne) that he recalled from the podium, lamenting that in "ten years of mandate" his "long-awaited town centre project" had still not seen the light of day.

For the minister, this text is therefore "stamped with common sense" and "responds to the call and the cry from the field".

Opposition MPs, such as the rebellious MP Claire Lejeune, were quick to point out from the podium that an investigation had been opened against him in 2024 for illegal taking of interest. He is suspected of having allocated housing belonging to an inter-municipal syndicate to two of his colleagues.

The highly technical text includes around forty measures. Among the most important are the relaxation of procedures for amending local urban planning schemes (PLUs), and in areas where there is a housing need, an extension of the exemptions that are in the hands of mayors.

It facilitates the procedures for converting existing buildings into housing, such as agricultural facilities that have been unused for more than 20 years or offices. It shortens appeal deadlines.

The text strengthens the power of mayors against illegal constructions, by increasing the amount of fines.

But for Claire Lejeune, it "introduces" above all "regressions through exemptions that go in all directions." The standards are there "to protect the environment" and "people," she commented.