Capping the rise in rents: the text rejected in committee in the Senate

“With this vote, our committee wants to express a powerful outburst of anger at the urgency of the housing situation, taken lightly by the government,” said the chair of the Economic Affairs Committee Sophie Primas (LR).

The text of deputy Thomas Cazenave (Renaissance) was adopted at first reading last Thursday by the National Assembly, in a stormy atmosphere, the left accusing the presidential majority of opening the door to an increase rather than "freezing" rents .

He proposes to renew until the beginning of 2024 the "rent shield": a cap on the increase in the reference index of rents at 3,5%. Introduced in the summer of 2022, it is due to end at the end of June 2023. A similar system caps the increase in the commercial rent index for SMEs.

As the end of the shield approached, in a context of high inflation, the extension proposal had to be registered urgently in order to hope to complete the parliamentary shuttle in time. The government has also initiated the accelerated procedure (one reading before each chamber).

On the method, the rapporteur for the text in the Senate, Dominique Estrosi Sassone (LR), rejected "legislation on the sly". "Examined in unworthy of time, this bill has not been the subject of any consultation with the actors who, for many, have been presented with a fait accompli", she criticized.

For Sophie Primas, "this bill cannot exempt the government from a real housing policy, in favor of the purchasing power of the French". “And it is not the announcements of the CNR Logement that make a coherent policy, shared by the actors and effective”, she added, the day after the presentation by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne of the arbitrations of the executive for attempt to stem the housing crisis.