Government promises revival of urban policy

"I am pleased to confirm today that the next interministerial committee for cities will be held on April 17, 2025, in Montpellier," announced Juliette Méadel, Minister Delegate for Urban Affairs, to an audience of elected officials and associations gathered in Epinay-sous-Sénart (Essonne).

Education, security, housing, health, employment, social cohesion... This committee, chaired by the Prime Minister and bringing together all ministers, is intended to define new priorities for urban policy, designed to reduce inequalities between priority neighborhoods (QPV) and the rest of the country.

Three consultation meetings will be held in advance: on March 17 with the voluntary sector, on March 28 with representatives of the business world and social landlords, and on April 3 with elected representatives' associations.

Juliette Méadel is responding to the "Epinay appeal" launched shortly before by seven associations of local elected officials (Ville et Banlieue, Association of Mayors of France, Association of Small Towns, Villes de France, France urbaine, Intercommunalités de France, Amif), a rare initiative modeled on the Grigny appeal, which called for the defense of working-class neighborhoods in 2017.

The mayors have unequivocally noted a widening of territorial inequalities and an accelerated impoverishment of the 5,7 million inhabitants of priority neighborhoods since the Covid crisis.

"The appeal in Épinay-sous-Sénart must be a historic moment of awareness and decision-making (...) because the residents are starting to crack," warned Damien Allouch, Socialist Party mayor of Epinay, judging that "if all this doesn't work in a few months, it will be the extreme right that will be in power."

"We want (...) residents to have access to the same rights and services, that is to say, to the common law that prevails throughout the national territory," declared Gilles Leproust, president of Ville et Banlieue.

"Everything is falling apart"

The mayors are asking the government to develop an "inter-ministerial roadmap" for the neighborhoods and "to set quantified targets for each ministry to reduce inequality of opportunity."

In a constrained budgetary context that risks worsening the international geopolitical situation, suburban elected officials also fear "the silent extinction of the urban renewal policy" supported by the National Agency for Urban Renewal (ANRU), while state funding is already awaited for current projects.

Housing Minister Valérie Létard has indicated that she will visit the European Commission at the end of March to find new ways to finance the agency.

"We can clearly see that everything is falling apart," lashed out former Minister of Urban Affairs and father of urban renewal Jean-Louis Borloo, warning in passing of the risk of dismantling Action Logement, the primary financier of urban renewal programs.

At the last CIV, former Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced 84 measures, including no longer allocating housing in these neighborhoods to households benefiting from the enforceable right to housing, in the name of social diversity. The measure angered the left.

Not all of the 84 measures announced could be implemented, Ms. Méadel acknowledged, saying she preferred "a few consolidated priorities."

The minister reaffirmed her three priorities, including improving the living environment in and around social housing with the creation of a quarterly "monitoring committee."

"In one in two departments, we have major problems managing bulky items (sucker cars, washing machines)," she said.

The other two priorities are childhood and adolescence, with the continuation of "educational cities" and the establishment of psychological support for young people, as well as the economic development of neighborhoods, through the mass provision of micro-credit for women.

"We will not address the issue of children's mental health if we do not tackle the issue of social insecurity, that is, allowing a child to grow up properly, not alone, to be able to feed themselves, to be cared for and to study," she added.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.