Summarizing the Borloo report submitted yesterday to the Prime Minister only in the suburbs in difficulty is a mistake. “The archipelago of 1,500 urban policy districts is the equivalent of the cumulative population of the top ten cities in France [...]. But it is much more in reality, because this accumulation of serious difficulties and their consequences impact the popular neighborhoods that are close to them and spread around them; a cultural, geographical and generational environment. If we add abandoned rural territories and certain cities or basins in serious neglect, as well as a significant part of our overseas territories, we are more than 10 million compatriots who are far from the engine of success, do not have the same starting conditions, the same basic services and therefore the same chance to be able, through their effort and merit, to build a real future,” explains the former Minister of the City in the introduction of his document. While the figure may be subject to debate, the observation is relentless. And some did not wait for the former mayor of Valenciennes to sound the alarm to take up the issue. The real estate industry is at the forefront of these.
To be convinced of this, all you had to do was be present in London last Monday and Tuesday for the third edition of the RICS World Built Environment Forum, the first in Europe. A sentence uttered by one of the participants particularly caught my attention during this event, which was intended to respond to the challenges facing the world population in the 21st century: “Rather than talking about the concept of smart city, I now prefer to talk about the concept of resilient cities.” An idea that is increasingly widespread and shared in particular by Matthias Navarro, founding partner of Redman: “To ensure that the cities of tomorrow offer opportunities and better living conditions for all, it is essential to understand that the concept of inclusive cities adds social and solidarity dimensions to the principles — already almost classical — of the smart city, which are those of managing energy, food, environmental and economic resources, which are those of managing energy, food, environmental and economic resources.”
Better still, actors are already beginning to put the theory into practice on some sites. This is the case, for example, of Brownfields, at the level of the former Westinghouse wasteland in Sevran, with a program of 630 housing units (245 in free ownership, 265 in social housing and 120 in intermediate rent), six service residences (students, seniors, young workers) and 6,000 m² of businesses in which the Caisse des Dépôts and the European Investment Bank (EIB) are involved. “This operation shows that we We can have something else in our territories and it will give us another vision of our city with other real estate and infrastructure projects,” Stéphane Gatignon reminded us last February. Since then, the mayor of Sevran has resigned with a bang, “worn out” by the “contempt of the State for the suburbs”.
In line with the Borloo report, Emmanuel Macron must announce a mobilization plan in May in favor of priority neighborhoods. For the success of the latter, let us hope that the President of the Republic has definitively understood that real estate is not an income but an essential element in the inclusion of all in French society in the 21st century.