Catalan town councils will be able to submit their projects for the second call of the neighborhood law between July 6 and 17, a line of aid that starts with 200 million euros and that the Government plans to expand if the budgets agreed with the Comuns prosper.
The new phase of the plan begins with a paradox in the background. Municipal demand was already high in the first call in 2025, with 83 applications, but the initial allocation would only allow financing actions in vulnerable neighborhoods of about 20 municipalities, a figure that could double to 40 if the allocation ends up growing.
The Government opened the second call with 200 million expandable
The Consell Executiu, chaired by Salvador Illa, approved the new plan on May 26 and has now set the calendar for the second call. The town councils will be able to opt for investments between three and 25 million euros depending on their population, although they will have to complete the financing with their own resources.
The Government's forecast is to provisionally resolve the applications in the fall. All Catalan vegueries must be represented in this call, so that the distribution is not concentrated in only one part of the territory.
Sílvia Paneque, Minister of Territory and spokesperson for the Government, placed the political objective of the program on three axes and defended that the Neighborhood Plan unites social justice, environmental sustainability, and urban quality.
"The Neighborhood Plan unites three key ideas: social justice, environmental sustainability, and urban quality" - Sílvia Paneque, Minister of Territory and spokesperson for the Government
Paneque added that the executive wants "neighborhoods where people live better, with tangible public policies for the benefit of people's real lives" and expressed her expectation that the allocation will reach at least 300 million if the Catalan accounts go ahead.
Badalona and Sant Adrià de Besòs are preparing a joint project
Among the municipalities that have already made a move are Badalona and Sant Adrià de Besòs, which will compete with a shared proposal. The joint formula appears in a call that once again focuses on areas of special attention and urban interventions linked to social vulnerability.
The second plan will prioritize citizen income, territorial continuity, and demographic homogeneity. It will also concentrate actions on housing rehabilitation, while new construction will be banned except in cases of resident relocation or renovation of existing facilities.
With this design, the Government expects the second call to receive even more requests than the first. The neighborhood commissioner led by Carles Martí registered 83 applications in 2025, a volume that serves as a reference to measure the pressure that the initial budget will once again withstand.
The law mobilized 1.9 billion until 2010 and lost momentum from 2011 onwards
The neighborhoods law was approved in 2004 during the tripartite governments led by the PSC with Pasqual Maragall and José Montilla. In its seven calls until 2010, it mobilized 1.9 billion euros and reached 140 towns.
Afterwards, funding decreased from 2011 onwards, in the midst of the economic crisis and with the social cuts applied by the Government of Artur Mas. This precedent explains why the return of the law now comes with high municipal expectations and an open debate about whether the initial 200 million will be enough to absorb demand.
If the budget increase is confirmed, the program's capacity would go from actions in about 20 municipalities to interventions in 40, while the town councils will have from July 6 to 17 to register their projects.