[DREAL OCCITANIA] Delegates to stone

Delegation of powers Article 61 of Act No. 2004-809 of 13 August 2004 on local freedoms and responsibilities allows the State to delegate to EPCI (urban communities, agglomeration communities, new agglomeration unions, communities of municipalities responsible for housing) and to the departments the management of stone aid (social rental park and private park under the Anah). The Stone Aid Delegation gives EPCI and the departments the tools to develop the supply of housing (public or private). The Stone Aid Delegation legally commits the delegating State and the delegated authority for six renewable years under a convention, known as the ‘Delegation of Competence Agreement’, concluded on the basis of an enforceable Local Habitat Programme (PLH) when it concerns an EPCI. Strengthening the delegation of competences for EPCIs The promulgation of Laws No 2014-58 of 27 January 2014 on the modernisation of territorial public action and the affirmation of metropolitan areas (MAPTAM) and No 2014-366 of 24 March 2014 on access to housing and a renovated urban planning (Alur) established the intercommunal territory as the relevant territory for the implementation of local housing and housing policies, based on the delegation of powers. Act No. 2015-991 of 7 August 2015 on the new territorial organisation of the Republic (Act NOTRé) continues this trend. In addition to the stone aid alone, the government wished to strengthen the means of action of voluntary intercommunities, by broadening the existing delegation of powers, defined in L. 301-5-1 of the CCH, to enable them to have in their territory all the levers necessary for the implementation of a coherent and efficient housing and accommodation policy. It is in this sense that the scope of the “delegable” State’s competences in this area, respectively, to EPCIs and metropolises with a local habitat programme (PLH), has been broadened. This enlargement thus concerns the following powers: contracting without Anah works; the guarantee of the right to housing and, to that end, the management of all or part of the prefectural quota; the procedure for requisitioning with successful tenderers; the management of social watch, reception, accommodation and housing support for any person or family without a home or experiencing particular difficulties in accessing housing; the drafting and monitoring of agreements of social utility; the issuance to HLM organisations of housing alienation licences. In connection with the relaxation of the PLH procedure and the institutionalisation of a procedure for the extension of an PLH, a procedure for the extension of agreements for the delegation of powers was also introduced by the Alur Law and codified in Article L. 301-5-1 of the CCH. These two procedures are intended to enable local housing policies to be pursued in favour of local authorities, which demonstrate a certain degree of dynamism, without being blocked by territorial reform and the modification of inter-communal boundaries, by the constraint of the deadlines for the preparation of supporting documents (PLH or PLUi-H) or by the drafting of a new agreement and thus the end of management.