The government announces doubling of funds allocated to urban renewal in 2026

Urban renewal is not dead. Housing Minister Valérie Létard announced on Thursday, June 12, a payment of €116 million in 2026 to the National Agency for Urban Renewal (ANRU), twice as much as in 2025, and a preparatory mission to continue this public policy.

The first step in developing a new urban renewal program, this preparatory mission was widely applauded by a gathering of urban renewal stakeholders, brought together in Paris by the ANRU for two days of conferences. It must determine "the conditions that will help define the future of urban renewal," including the mechanisms for financing projects and their goals, the minister said, who remains open to all options.

For the president of the ANRU, Patrice Vergriete, "this is an agreement in principle for the implementation of a third urban renewal program" and therefore "good news" for this urban policy designed to change the face of old large housing estates.

This announcement was also welcomed by Emmanuelle Cosse, president of the Social Housing Union, a confederation of social landlords who partly finance the ANRU. "It's a major issue" and "we can't procrastinate on the future of urban renewal," she told Agence France-Presse (AFP), before adding: "We, the social landlords alone, have already identified needs." Valérie Létard assured that she wanted to "ensure that there are no gaps or gaps between one urban renewal program and another."

As for the promised €116 million, it is more than twice the €50 million paid by the State in 2025, but still well below the €270 million requested by the ANRU. Patrice Vergriete had warned of the risk of blocking certain neighborhood redevelopment projects if the State did not pay its share of the funding for the second urban renewal program.

Launched in 2014, this new national urban renewal program (NPNRU) provides for 12 billion euros of expenditure until 2030 and is financed by the joint body Action Logement (8.4 billion euros), by social landlords (2.4 billion euros) and by the State (1.2 billion).

"The government's commitment is that the budget that the State owes to the ANRU will be honored," assured Valérie Létard. The prefiguration mission "is a victory, we have come a long way," affirmed the minister, moved to defend the urban renewal policy in front of her mentor, Jean-Louis Borloo, who founded the ANRU in 2004 and affirms that preserving it is still "his fight every day."

Nothing is certain yet, according to Emmanuelle Cosse, because "as long as there is no law providing for a new urban renewal program, there is a fear" that this policy will stop. "It is a historic act, as in 2004 when the ANRU was created and in 2014 with the launch of the NPNRU," Patrice Vergriete rejoices.

"It's very important for the residents of the neighborhoods, for the French model of sustainable cities. There are millions of French people affected, who do not live with dignity, who are in a situation of energy insecurity, who experience stigma because of their address," argues the president of the ANRU, former Minister of Housing. He believes that the ANRU must also "better understand the new challenges of the urban transition," including adaptation to change and the aging of the population.