James BryceBy James Bryce
AN MEP has slammed Spain’s housing secretary, accusing her of being ‘in denial’ about the problems facing British expats.
UKIP’s Marta Andreasen accused Beatriz Corredor of failing to acknowledge the severity of Spain’s housing problems, during a heated exchange at a London property ‘roadshow’.
It came after Corredor claimed that a decree to legalise existing illegal properties combined with a reduction in home tax and falling house prices made Spain the ideal place to invest.
However, she failed to mention the thousands of expats who have been told their houses are illegally built and are excluded from local water and electricity supplies.
Andreasen said: “I can’t believe she refused to mention the fact that there are serious problems affecting Brits in Spain.
“The British are the largest amount of foreign property purchasers, but the bad reputation Spain has earned itself has seen interest plummet.
“This so-called ‘property roadshow’ aims to get the Brits spending again. But it is completely wrong.
“Regional governments pick fights with local governments, mayors and politicians take bribes, then get prosecuted for corruption – it really is difficult for any British person to trust anyone throughout the home buying process.”
Andreasen is currently urging the EU to freeze funding for Spanish regions until the issue is resolved.
Spain’s downfall in the (povrecito piratas) modern communications era
You can fool some of the people some of the times but you can not fool all of the people all of the times ……..
I am fast becoming convinced that failing to recognize your problems is a European wide disease, Spain doesn’t have a problem with illegal homes and corruption, the Greek economy after the latest bail out is well on the road to recovery, the Euro is a strong and stable currency and it’s normal for the Chinese to prop it up and I’m not a bit over weight.
A parlementarian is like a dog, elected to pee against any tree available. Ms. Adreasen seems to be good at that, but smells a bit like carreer parlementarian. I have some doubts. A Secretary of State however, represents the State. When she flies up, to restore confidenxe, and when confronted with criticism, is not capable of handling such a situation…. Damages confidence in the Spanish State. Or confirms the feeling many of us think: When you bring money they smile. When you get in trouble you can go back. to your own country.
Marta Andreasen may represent a laughable political party but she should be cheered from the roof tops for fighting to highlight this situation and is one of the few politicos calling for greater transparency in Brussels.
@ Peter Did you know Mario Draghi governor of Italy’s central bank, the man responsible for Italy’s dire financial state, is about to be promoted to take over from Jean-Claude Trichet as president of the European Central Bank?
Talk about a wolf guarding the sheep!!!
Yes Boulder I did know about Draghi taking over, I follow with interest the Euro Zones jobs for the boys policy, what concerns me more is that during these troubled economic times we have the weakest bunch of western leaders I have ever known.
I think the point here is the minister refuses to acknowledge the problems with off plan purchase and refuses to admit that ley 57/68 is worthless and much abused.
Tell me Boulder, Why does Marta laughable represents a political party? She represent the people who voted for her ! What is laughable, is people voting for euro fanatic parties that will not represent them. So far, I cannot find anything that benefits european people that comes from the european political class. Only for themselves do this polical elete achieve through privalage and corruption.
And that Adi is why they are laughable. See, you answered your own question ;)
And amongst all the verbosity contained within the PP manifesto, which does nothing but describe what needs to be done (without saying how) and slag off the PSOE I can’t find anything which acknowledges the sorry state of self inflicted affairs in the which the construction industry finds itself, let alone setting out a coherent plan of action. One can only suppose they will throw more of the (EU) taxpayers money at the problem rather than solving it.
And why they have spent so much money on a (not very well translated) English version when extranjeros in national elections cannot vote is a mystery to me.