It is possible to house the French by reducing concrete construction according to two NGOs

It is possible to limit urban sprawl and reduce poor housing at the same time, provided that we fundamentally rethink the land use planning model, warn the Abbé Pierre and pour la Nature et l'Homme foundations in a report published Tuesday March 19.

The "zero net artificialization" (ZAN) objective, enshrined in the law, obliges France to halve, every ten years, the rate of erosion of natural spaces by the city, and to have stopped the phenomenon in 2050.

The artificialization of land, which has deleterious effects on biodiversity, the environment and the climate, is due almost two thirds to the construction of housing, which takes up more space in France than elsewhere due to a model of land use planning that favored individual houses.

This model could also have worsened poor housing, note the foundations, many houses in subdivisions having been built at low cost, with consequences on their quality and their insulation, and therefore on the finances of their occupants.

The authors also highlight the cost of this model for communities, with urban sprawl leading to significant needs for roads and electricity, gas and water networks, which are expensive to build and maintain.

However, to reduce poor housing, 400.000 new housing units would have to be built per year, according to the Abbé Pierre Foundation, including 150.000 social housing units - compared to 373.000 and 82.000, respectively, in 2023.

To reconcile this objective with land sobriety, it will be necessary to further densify, by building more housing per hectare in residential areas, by raising existing buildings or by developing "light" housing, note the authors of the report, and for this, communities will need increased funding.

For new construction, it will be necessary to give greater priority to collective housing (buildings), which consume less space, in particular social housing, affirm the two NGOs, who recommend increasing the financing of HLM.

They are also calling for strengthening rent controls and regulating land prices, while fighting against vacant housing or land retention with significant tax increases.

They also suggest measures to reduce the share of second homes in the housing stock, and to limit the phenomenon of furnished tourist accommodation.