A report on land artificialization proposes putting taxation at the service of sobriety

Deeply reform local taxation to encourage land use conservation: a report presented a few days ago by two MPs sets out around thirty proposals to encourage individuals, businesses and elected officials to better preserve natural, agricultural and forest areas.

Relaxed in both the Senate and the Assembly, the objective of "zero net artificialization of soils" (ZAN) established by the 2021 Climate Law still retains its main provision, namely that any new hectare consumed in 2050 must be offset by the renaturation of an artificialized hectare.

Keen, however, to "stop this unravelling", MP Sandrine Le Feur (EPR) presented, with Constance de Pélichy (Liot), an information report which recommends an "ambitious reform of local taxation" to "better encourage land sobriety among stakeholders in all public policies".

"On the one hand, we are going to tax artificialization, but on the other, we are supporting and helping by strengthening the brownfield fund and the green fund, the rehabilitation and renovation of buildings," Sandrine Le Feur explained to AFP, who hopes to see the tax measures integrated into the next finance bill.

The report proposes to remove temporary property tax exemptions for new constructions, as well as commercial property tax exemptions for warehouses, hangars and covered parking lots.

He also suggests increasing the tax on land-consuming developments, such as swimming pools, generalizing the tax on commercial wasteland and extending it to industrial wasteland.

To encourage elected officials to better protect natural spaces, the MPs are calling for "strengthening property tax exemptions on all natural, agricultural, and forest land," as well as taxes on capital gains on land that has become buildable, in order to limit speculation.

On the housing front, parliamentarians intend to give mayors the ability to tax vacant housing more effectively, particularly those owned by multiple owners, and encourage their renovation through a 25% tax credit on expenses incurred.

According to them, state funding for local authorities should also be redirected to promote land-efficient projects.

On the legal front, new tools will be the subject of a separate bill, such as the creation of a right of pre-emption for town halls over non-artificialized spaces, in order to protect them from speculation.

Another proposal also aims to accelerate blocked successions and to relax certain urban planning rules to encourage densification.

According to the Center for Risk Studies and Expertise (Cerema), 20.276 hectares of natural spaces were consumed in 2022.

The senators are also preparing a report on ZAN taxation.