O Grove (Galicia), 2 October 2026 — Alfonso Rueda, president of the Xunta de Galicia, has reaffirmed his government’s housing policy at the VIII Foro La Toja-Vínculo Atlántico He presented the expansion of public housing and the development of building land as key tools for increasing housing supply in Galicia. At the same time, he opposed recent decrees by the Spanish government, which in his view would not increase supply and would create legal uncertainty in the market.
According to the Xunta, 4,000 additional public homes are planned during the current legislative term. In parallel, building land is to be developed for a further 20,000 social housing units, to be offered at socially affordable prices. Rueda linked these goals to a call for “fair funding” between the state and the autonomous community: without a fair allocation of resources, there can be no territorial cohesion. Delivering the plans still depends on specific budget decisions and tenders.
Rueda presented his position on the panel alongside the Lehendakari of the Basque Country, Imanol Pradales, and the president of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Salvador Illa. The discussion centred on responsibilities for housing policy and how they fit into the state’s financial architecture. Rueda defended the need for a functioning state of autonomies and clear, well-designed decentralisation. In doing so, he stressed the regions’ claim to be involved in decisions affecting the country as a whole.
To explain his approach, Rueda cited other structural barriers in addition to the shortage of housing: a lack of skilled workers in construction, avoidable absenteeism in businesses and the need for managed immigration to ease labour shortages. He described these as supporting measures intended to speed up homebuilding and strengthen the impact of public investment.
In practice, the argument distinguishes between immediate measures to boost supply — more public construction and serviced land — and longer-term policy questions such as fiscal equalisation and the allocation of responsibilities. While the targets cited by the Xunta were presented as political benchmarks, meeting them depends on the adoption of the necessary budgets, local authorities’ planning decisions and the outcome of public tenders. Criticism of the central government’s decrees is a political judgement; whether they deter investment or create legal uncertainty remains to be seen in practice.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).