Urban renovation must involve social diversity and adaptation to climate change

Entitled "Together, remaking the city", this report unveiled on Tuesday had been commissioned in December 2023 from the general director of the National Agency for Urban Renewal (ANRU), Anne-Claire Mialot, the PS mayor of Villeurbanne, Cédric van Styvendael, and the senior civil servant Jean-Martin Delorme, in order to imagine the future of urban renewal, twenty years after the creation of the agency in 2004.

A key instrument wanted by the former Minister of the City Jean-Louis Borloo to change the face of large housing estates, the ANRU aims to rehabilitate hundreds of so-called "priority urban policy" (QPV) districts where social and economic difficulties are concentrated, through spectacular demolition-reconstruction operations, but also renovation and development of public space.

This report comes at a pivotal moment for the ANRU, an agency that lives only through its programs, with the allocation of funding for its second flagship program (NPNRU) ending in 2026.

The authors note that socio-spatial segregation has increased in France, "under the combined effects of metropolitanization, deindustrialization and increasing social inequalities" and highlight the problems common to the inhabitants of the 1.609 QPVs and those of "rural, peri-urban and economically depressed territories".

Whether they are poor "in an isolated rural community" or "in a landlocked urban area", residents face the same difficulties "in finding a job, accessing public services, finding housing, getting around and getting medical care".

Added to these fragilities are the impacts of climate change, which accelerates inequalities to the detriment of the poorest.

"Territorial rebalancing"

Considering that "segregation and remoteness of services" were the "common causes" of the 2023 riots and the "yellow vest" crisis of 2018, the report recommends reaffirming the fight against socio-spatial segregation as a "national priority" so that no territory is left behind.

An "inter-ministerial committee for regional planning, reporting to the Prime Minister" will have to "implement a national policy of territorial rebalancing and anticipation of the territorial consequences of climate change".

This committee will have to develop a "national inter-ministerial plan for mobilization in favor of priority neighborhoods" guaranteeing the "deployment of common law policies", as well as a "national inter-ministerial plan for mobilization in favor of fragile territories".

Another key lesson: the "need to pursue a resilient urban renewal policy focused on priority neighborhoods", since "QPVs are in decline if they are not supported".

The authors, however, consider it relevant to extend this public policy which has "proven its worth" to other fragile territories or those at risk of becoming so.

To avoid "an air pocket" in the Anru programs, the mission also recommends the launch of a national urban renewal program in 2025, "with the aim of combating urban segregation and territorial resilience" by targeting the "most vulnerable" priority neighborhoods.

This program will inaugurate "a new generation of recurring programs."

The Ministry of Regional Planning indicates, however, that "the reflection to construct a new regional planning strategy around the issues of urban renewal is starting and will continue until 2025".

An "inventory of the NPNRU's projects for 2026" will also be commissioned from an independent mission.

The report also calls for a "simplification" of interventions, a co-construction of projects with residents, as well as a change in financing mobilizing private actors and European funds.

Regarding the expansion of ANRU interventions outside priority districts, the authors cite "territories in decline" (in demographic and economic decline), such as "the suburban housing fabric" as well as territories facing the consequences of climate change, in particular the retreat of the coastline.

The fact remains that this urban renewal policy will not be able to "fully produce its effects" without the mobilization of common law policies in terms of "security, education, employment, health, and access to public services and culture", the authors warn.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.