| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Justice At Last: Spain Is Forcing Banks To Pay Fines For Empty Homes
by Sophie McAdam
Barcelona’s new mayor has kept her promise to go after the banks who started the crisis, and other cities are doing the same
In a decision which should cause many a bankster to quake in their boots, the Spanish city of Barcelona has handed down a fine which totals 60,000 euros ($67,640) to three Spanish banks in an effort to force them to make use of empty properties. One hundred other towns and cities, including the capital Madrid, have implemented similar penalties in recent months.
Over one third of all the vacant homes in Europe are located in Spain. The financial crisis hit the country hard: over 3.4 million houses are empty and rising unemployment has seen a sharp increase in mortgage defaults, with 95 homes a day seized by authorities in 2014.
Barcelona’s mayor Ada Colau wants to stop all of that. She took power in May this year and is a housing and anti-poverty activist who co-founded the campaign group MVP (Mortgage Victim’s Platform) to fight the banks who started this crisis. Colau, 41, is also leader of the grassroots group Barcelona en Comú (Barcelona in common), a coalition of several left-wing political parties and thousands of citizen-activists.
Philosophers stone – selected views from the boat http://philosophers-stone.co.uk
Source: http://www.philosophers-stone.co.uk/?p=3053
