The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) welcomes the European Commission’s proposals for a European Affordable Housing Plan, which rightly recognise that Europe’s housing crisis has become a daily reality for working people.
Escalating housing costs are undermining living standards, weakening economic stability and restricting access to jobs across the EU. For millions of workers, rent and mortgage payments now consume an ever-larger share of pay cheques, intensifying the cost-of-living crisis and squeezing domestic demand.
Unaffordable housing is also exacerbating labour shortages. Workers are increasingly unable to move to where jobs are available because housing costs are simply prohibitive, creating a major obstacle for employers and local economies alike.
The housing crisis is inseparable from the issue of low pay. The adequacy of statutory minimum wages must take into account the real cost of living, including housing costs, to ensure that work provides a decent standard of living. Without wages that reflect actual housing expenses, even full-time workers will continue to be priced out of decent accommodation in many parts of Europe.
Addressing the housing crisis requires a major increase in public investment in affordable and social housing. Revising EU state aid rules can help unlock that investment, but public money must deliver public value.
Any taxpayer funding directed to private companies must be accompanied by clear, binding and enforceable conditions to ensure it supports quality jobs, collective bargaining, fair wages and safe working conditions. Occupational health and safety rules must be a non-negotiable requirement for access to public funds.
The ETUC strongly warns against any attempt to weaken labour standards under the guise of “simplification”. Collective agreements and health and safety protections are not red tape, they are fundamental rights and essential to ensuring that public investment delivers lasting social and economic benefits.
The Commission is also right to highlight the damaging role of speculative investment in housing, which has pushed prices far beyond the reach of working families. Strong action is now needed to curb speculation and to limit short-term rentals, which are diverting much-needed housing stock away from workers and hollowing out local communities.
Esther Lynch, General Secretary of the ETUC, said:
“Working people are paying the price of Europe’s housing crisis every month, as housing costs swallow wages and push families to the brink, while employers struggle to fill jobs because workers cannot afford to live where the work is.
“The Commission is right to point to the role of speculation and the loss of housing to short-term rentals, which is hollowing out communities and pricing workers out of the places they are needed most.
“Public investment is essential to fix this failure, but public money must come with conditions. Taxpayers’ money must reinforce collective bargaining, guarantee strong health and safety standards and support quality jobs – not subsidise insecurity or low pay.
“Revising state aid rules is important but is not sufficient on its own. It is urgent to suspend and revise the EU economic governance rules so governments can invest at the scale needed to meet the challenges faced by working people.”
Tom Deleu, General Secretary of the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW) said:
“Construction workers - the very people who build our homes and who are essential to deliver on the promises for more affordable housing - must themselves have the right to live in decent housing.
“We welcome this initiative. However, we warn that today the construction sector is not ready for the challenges due to its high level of fragmentation and long and complex chains of subcontracting.
“The sector is also confronted with huge labour shortages. To succeed, any plan must look at increasing attractiveness of the sector including better working conditions, better salaries and social protection.
“The Housing Plan must have an investment strategy that will promote business models based on innovation and skills, and that will provide direct, quality jobs covered by collective bargaining agreements, where employers invest in their workforce. We insist that any future Construction Services Act will look at the real needs of the sector and will contribute to the objectives of the Fair Labour Mobility Package and Quality Jobs Act. Construction workers will not accept anything less.”
