Castex praises the extension of the "brownfield plan" on the old Cosserat factory in Amiens

The wasteland plan, which the government announced on Friday an extension of 100 million euros with a new call for projects, "works very well", rejoiced Mr. Castex.

According to the head of government, the initial endowment of the fund, created in 2020 as part of the recovery plan, has gone "like hot cakes".

Now raised to 750 million, the fund has enabled the "reconstruction or rehabilitation of 100.000 homes".

"We must do recycling on all floors: housing [abandoned], wasteland (...) we must optimize everything", hammered Mr. Castex, recalling that "the artificialization (of soils) is progressing four times more faster than the population ".

"It is generally longer, more complicated and more expensive to build on wasteland," said Minister responsible for housing, Emmanuelle Wargon.

The head of government wants in particular "to promote the intervention of private initiative" in these operations.

The transformation program of the Cosserat wasteland, which he visited, should receive aid of 300.000 euros to transform the old textile factory specializing in velvet, emblematic of Amiens.

Abandoned in the early 2000s, its 500th century buildings housed up to 1.000 looms and XNUMX employees.

The project provides for the rehabilitation of 8.000 m³ of buildings, for 34.000 m³ of new construction. 400 homes will be created there by 2025, as well as 9.000 m2 of offices and 500 mXNUMX of shops.

On the spot, François Ruffin, deputy for the Somme, denounced the "hypocrisy" of the speech in a lively exchange with the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili.

"Today, what is settling here is an economic renewal," said the minister.

This project "I take it, but it represents 5 ha", and "next to that, we are going to concrete dozens of hectares at the entrance to Amiens, and expand the area (of activities) around Amazon ", objected the elected LFI.

The conversion of wasteland is one of the levers used by the government to achieve its objective of "zero net artificialization" by 2050.

In France, 20.000 to 30.000 ha of natural spaces are artificialized each year, one of the primary causes of climate change, erosion and loss of biodiversity.