ASTURIAS: LEADING REGION WITHIN THE RENOVATION WAVE
Asturias, Spain Construction and Development
Description
The policy aims to promote the energy rehabilitation of collective housing buildings in the region of Asturias. To do this, a process of governance is carried out with the stakeholders involved, with the financial support from national/regional government, through grants up 45% of investment made by the owners of the dwellings.
Context
The region of Asturias is located in the north of Spain in the Atlantic area. There are 480,000 homes used as first homes. Due to being a highly industrialized region, this housing stock consumes only 7.9% of the energy demand, compared to 68.6% for industry. Piped natural gas and electricity account for 81% of the energy use of this housing stock. 54% of all main homes were built before 1980, when the first Spanish technical building code came into force, which required that buildings have a minimum of thermal insulation. Therefore, the gradual energy renovation of all this collective housing stock generates benefits in terms of social impact (energy savings and comfort), environmental impact (no CO2 emissions), economic impact (employment) and urbanistic impact(improvement of the urban environment and cities).
Issues tackled
The main objective of the initiative is the energetic rehabilitation of collective housing buildings through public-private collaboration. One million euros invested represents about 45% in terms of energy savings, a reduction in the emission of 140,000 kg CO2/year and the generation of 18 jobs, both direct and indirect. It is also known that for each million euros of public grants, 2.5 million euros of private investment are generated. A meeting between the stakeholders involved was held un summer of 2020: policy makers from the region, city councils, rehabilitation and renovation private sector, property administrators, architects and technical architects. As a result of this meeting, a specific call for grants was designed and published in October 2020. In the first days of the publication, 221 applications were submitted, representing a total investment of 120 million with the support of 47 million in direct public grants. This represents the intervention on 5,100 homes, creation of 2,160 jobs and 16,800,000 kg of CO2 emissions avoided each year. It should be noted that the region of Asturias represents 2.18% of the total Spanish population and that 30,000 homes are currently being renovated in Spain. Therefore, the Asturian region, with 2.18% of the population is carrying out 17% of the energy rehabilitation of buildings throughout Spain, rate 8 times higher than the Spanish average. A large part of the success is the model of governance deployed.
Actors involved
- Government of the Principality of Asturias
- Spanish Government
- City Town Councils
- Private sector (rehabilitation and renovation companies)
- Property administrators
- Architects
- Neighbourhood communities
Actions carried out
- A process of governance was carried out with the stakeholders involved
- Financial support from national/regional government, through grants up 45% of investment made by the owners of the dwellings.
- A specific call for proposals for building renovation was opened by the regional government of Asturias, aimed to neighbourhood communities.
- Meetings and workshops with all actors involved were carried out
Results
The most positive impact is the high neighbourhood answer and the mobilisation of the key actors in the whole process, to achieve a high demand for the call for grants. This high demand will be translated into rehabilitation projects to be implemented in two years that will generate immediate results: firstly for the population with an average saving of 45% in their energy consumption and improving their daily comfort, secondly in the region’s economy with the creation of 2,160 jobs between direct and indirect, thirdly for the environment by avoiding the emission of 16.8 million kg of CO2 per year and, fourthly, in the urban environment, with a clear improvement in the face of the buildings and, therefore, the general appearance of the cities. The governance model for this call is serving as an example for other areas of the Asturian administration and the city councils.
Why it works
One of the key indicator is the high demand of renovation projects that were submitted to the call.
An innovative sector of renovation companies, with experience on building renovation, is another key for success.
A strong commitment from the regional/national government, with financial support, is key.
Scale
local