Asturias’ Consejero for Spatial Planning, Housing and Citizens’ Rights, Ovidio Zapico, on 13 October 2026 in the Junta General of the Principado de Asturias called for the regional Ley de Vivienda to be passed this month. During question time, he addressed the member of the Grupo Mixto, Covadonga Tomédirectly and asked for her support. Zapico said the law’s passage should become the first binding political commitment of a broad progressive alliance.
Zapico stressed that he was fully involved in the ongoing negotiations and considered a vote at the final October sitting realistic. According to him, the talks had resolved key issues, although he gave no details of the final text. The decisive factor would be securing a majority in the plenary; Zapico made no commitments on this.
In her contribution, Tomé called for tougher measures against evictions and a more determined use of the autonomous community’s powers to curb homelessness. She spoke of a social emergency and criticised political forces that rely primarily on market-oriented instruments. It remained unclear how Tomé would vote on the specific bill.
The background is the draft Asturian housing law, under negotiation for months, which the government says is intended to improve security of supply, stabilise the public housing stock and simplify procedures. Zapico had repeatedly pointed to progress in the preceding weeks. In early October he gave figures for the public housing stock: 74 homes were illegally occupied and 305 were vacant. He said this demonstrated the need for clear rules on allocation, protection and recovery.
Legally, the proposal sits at the intersection of autonomous powers over spatial planning and housing and national legislation. Disputes in Spain’s regions regularly concern the boundaries of rental rules, interventions in municipal practice and implementation. In Asturias, attention is now focused on possible compromises on tenant and landlord protections, criteria for strained housing markets and the future role of municipalities.
If the vote fails in October, the timetable will be delayed and negotiations will have to continue. If the bill passes, Asturias could quickly establish its own framework. For the government, this would be an early signal that it can deliver on social and housing policy; for the opposition, it remains a test of whether the mix of safeguards and regulatory requirements is considered balanced.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).