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Cities call for housing simplification that delivers affordability without compromising climate goals. As the European Commission prepares its Housing Simplification Package, Eurocities is urging EU policymakers to focus on making existing rules work better together in practice, rather than weakening environmental, climate or health standards.  

Drawing on the experience of cities across Europe, this position paper highlights how local authorities can help accelerate the delivery of social and affordable housing if regulatory, financial and administrative barriers are addressed. 

Cities play a central role in housing delivery through planning, permitting, urban regeneration and land-use management. However, they often face increasing complexity as European, national, regional and local requirements overlap. Eurocities states that simplification should improve coordination between policies, clarify responsibilities and create more predictable implementation frameworks, while maintaining ambitious climate, energy, nature and air quality objectives.  

A key message of the paper is that housing affordability and sustainability must go hand in hand and that climate considerations should be an integral part of how housing affordability is defined. Cities support efforts to speed up the construction and renovation of housing, including public, social, cooperative and limited-profit housing, but stress that this requires sufficient funding, accessible financing mechanisms and stronger local administrative capacity. Long-term investment is needed not only to expand housing supply but also to renovate existing buildings, reduce energy costs and protect vulnerable households from rising housing expenses.  

The paper examines how major EU legislation, including the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the Energy Efficiency Directive, the Nature Restoration Regulation and the Ambient Air Quality Directive, interacts with cities’ efforts to deliver adequate social and affordable housing.

Cities report difficulties in financing deep renovations, adapting requirements to historic buildings and local conditions, and coordinating overlapping reporting obligations. Eurocities calls for greater flexibility to reflect differences in building stock, climate, heritage and urban form, while preserving the overall objectives of EU legislation.  

Another major priority is improving planning, permitting and zoning processes. More efficient procedures, better digital tools, interoperable databases and one-stop-shops can help accelerate housing delivery. Cities also ask for greater flexibility to repurpose underused buildings, such as former offices, schools and industrial sites, into housing where appropriate.

Examples from cities including Amsterdam, Ghent, Oslo, Paris and Rome demonstrate the potential of conversion projects to complement new housing construction and make better use of existing urban assets.  

Cities must be actively involved in designing and implementing the policies that affect housing delivery. As the level of government closest to implementation, local authorities have direct experience of how regulations interact on the ground and are well placed to identify practical solutions. Strengthening multi-level governance, improving regulatory coherence and ensuring that cities have the resources required to act will be essential if Europe is to deliver affordable, climate-resilient and high-quality housing at the scale needed.  

The Housing Simplification Package represents an opportunity not to lower standards, but to create clearer, more coherent and more workable frameworks that enable cities to deliver sustainable and affordable homes for all.