Urban renovation must become a "political priority" again, argues Patrice Vergriete

Appointed Friday as head of the National Agency for Urban Renewal, Patrice Vergriete made his first trip to Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) on Tuesday, whose inter-municipality is home to "the largest ANRU project in France", according to its president Mathieu Hanotin.

"Today, urban renewal is not on the political agenda and my job is to put it back on the agenda," declared the former Minister of Housing and then Transport in an interview with AFP.

"Do we want relegated neighborhoods or a balanced city, capable of anticipating climate change?" asks the first mayor of Dunkirk (North), who intends to keep his mandate.

Founded in 2004 under the leadership of former Minister of Urban Affairs Jean-Louis Borloo, ANRU is known for its spectacular demolition-reconstruction operations of towers and blocks of flats, the aim of which is to open up working-class neighbourhoods to improve the quality of life and safety of their residents.

Today, it is increasingly involved in the rehabilitation of existing buildings as well as the transformation of public spaces and the creation of new facilities.

In twenty years, two major programs have followed one another, the last of which (NPNRU), with a budget of 12 billion euros, is due to end in 2030.

A long-awaited report on the agency's future is also due to be released this month.

"There should be no debate on the extension of the ANRU and I hope that there will be an ANRU 3", argues Patrice Vergriete, for whom this agency "has largely demonstrated its usefulness in changing people's lives".

The debates about its future concern both its scope of action and its method of financing.

The NPNRU is currently financed by the joint body Action Logement (8,4 billion euros), as well as by social landlords (2,4 billion euros) and the State (1,2 billion).

Ambiguity

Should ANRU continue to focus on priority neighbourhoods only? Or should it be extended to the elimination of substandard housing in towns outside priority neighbourhoods, or even to the relocation of homes threatened by coastal erosion?

"There is a form of ambiguity in the term urban renovation because today renovation only concerns +urban policy+ districts but you can also do it where there is a lot of vacant housing," acknowledges Patrice Vergriete.

On this point, the new president of ANRU does not wish to "preempt the debates by imposing (his) vision", but rather "to be the architect of the rapprochement of the different points of view", the only way according to him to obtain funding commensurate with the challenges.

On the ground, elected officials are complaining about seeing ANRU credits arriving in dribs and drabs for budgetary reasons, delaying certain projects.

Initially non-existent, the agency's budget for 2025 will ultimately be increased to 50 million euros.

"I think there is an awareness that the State will also have to do its part," comments Mr. Vergriete, for whom "this participation will have to increase in 2026."

Asked about the agency's record, criticized after the riots triggered in the summer of 2023 by the death of young Nahel in Nanterre, the former Minister of Housing judges it on the contrary to be "very positive".

"If there was no urban policy, the situation would be much worse," he says, recalling that the riots did not only affect priority neighborhoods.

"The ANRU is a success for the transformation of the urban area, but this is perhaps not true of the social aspect which has been the poor relation of urban policy," he believes.

As for the objective of improving social diversity in the neighborhoods, one of the initial promises of the ANRU, the mayor of Dunkirk finds that the latter "has not failed."

"Moving from a district that concentrates social difficulties to a working-class district that is becoming commonplace is already a huge step forward and the diversification of the population will come in time," he judges, recalling that "it sometimes takes 50 years to change the image of a district."