Parliament definitively adopts a text to facilitate housing for public employees

The text tabled by David Amiel (Renaissance), who has since become Minister of the Budget, was adopted by 292 deputies against 160, after being approved in the Senate in early June.

All the MPs from the governing coalition and the far right voted in favour, while the left unanimously voted against.

The main provision of the text aims to allow a public employer to insert a clause in a contract in order to then recover social housing when a public employee changes jobs (the employer would have one year to activate it, and the deadline to leave the accommodation would be a minimum of six months).

The principle is already partly in force for state civil servants but would therefore be extended to territorial and hospital public services, or in tense areas to employees of transport companies providing a public service - for example the RATP in Paris.

Left-wing MPs, like Inaki Echaniz (PS), criticized "a bad answer to a real question".

The proposed law "does not aim to encourage the production of new social housing, but to facilitate mobility within the existing stock, by simplifying the eviction procedures for former employees who have served our country all their lives," he lamented.

Furthermore, the text risks hindering the "mobility" of public employees, which is "essential to the proper functioning of our public services," he stressed.

The rapporteur of the text, Annaïg Le Meur (Renaissance), defended a text which "does not solve everything", but "significantly improves the tools available to public employers to house employees and enhance the attractiveness of their profession".

Housing Minister Vincent Jeanbrun has expressed his support for the bill, which is part of a "comprehensive battle plan." He confirmed that the government will present its "Housing Recovery" bill to the cabinet next week, a bill intended, among other things, to boost construction.