Posted Jul 17, 2022, 2:10 PMUpdated on Jul 17, 2022 at 3:15 PM
The Livret A is not only the preferred savings product of the French. Its collection is also used to grant loans to HLM organizations in order to finance the production of social housing and the renovation of the existing stock, at variable rates indexed to the Livret A rate.
This is why the sector is concerned regarding the rise in the Livret A rate, which must be increased to 2% from August 1 to limit the effects of inflation on households. Either its highest level for almost ten years – it was still at 0.5% a year ago.
A production already struggling
“This quadrupling of the rate increases the debt burden of the sector by more than 2.1 billion euros in a full year, or 10% of the total amount of rents”, alerted Friday, in a press release, the Social Union for housing (USH), which federates HLM organisations. She recalled that the latter were indebted to the tune of more than 140 billion euros with the Caisse des Dépôts, which manages a large part of this regulated savings.
This additional charge is all the more unwelcome as the HLM sector is already confronted with soaring cost of building materials . And that the production of social housing remains far below the objectives in France – even though 2.3 million households are waiting for social housing.
It must also face an unprecedented energy renovation effort of the existing housing stock, to meet the requirements of the Climate and Resilience Law, voted in the summer of 2021. This with the aim of eradicating thermal sieves.
“More sustainable” levies
The USH also recalls that the investment capacities of social landlords have already been burdened, during the previous five-year term of Emmanuel Macron, by the reduction in solidarity rents (RLS) which was imposed on them in order to compensate for the drop in personalized housing assistance (APL).
The USH has repeatedly called on the government to reverse this measure, which it says has destabilized the sector. “In this context of a very rapid rise in the Livret A rate and rising work costs, the levies made on the sector since 2018 through the reduction in APL and the RLS, and the increase in the VAT rate on a large part of the activity are no longer sustainable”, considers Emmanuelle Cosse, the president of the USH, who evokes “the climatic and social emergency”. A clear call to the new Minister Delegate for Cities and Housing, Olivier Klein.
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