The construction of detached houses will be banned in Oslo

Housing policy emerged as Rødt’s main issue in the election campaign in Oslo. The proposals include a ban on forced housing and detached houses.

Over the weekend, Oslo Red will adopt a plan that will go to a vote in the fall.

If the district board gets its way, housing policy will be one of four key issues in the election campaign.

– The city council and rights do not have a social and fair housing policy. Only the market rules, says Siavash Mobasheri, Rødt’s group leader in the city council.

IN A proposal for a party plan It is recommended that politicians take back power and ensure stronger controls in all areas of the housing market.

The district board believes that Rødt’s most pressing housing issue now is to do something about rents in municipal housing. They demand that the existing joint tenancy (market rent) system be phased out within four years. In the short term, rents should decrease.

– We want to create another model that is fair. Mobasheri says this will ensure that those living in municipal housing do not become poor.

End of detached houses

In the project proposal, there is a detailed chapter on housing. Many proposals can be called radical.

Among other things, compulsory occupancy was proposed to prevent houses from remaining vacant for long periods. That doesn’t mean a ban on secondary homes, program committee leader Jorunn Folkvord clarifies.

A majority in the group would also ban the construction of detached houses in Oslo.

“Detached houses will no longer be built in Oslo. No dwellings larger than 150 square meters may be built without a rule on the number of residents (cooperatives, large families),” the proposal states. A minority says there is no such ban. This is one of 17 dissents in the project proposal.

– The construction of large and resource-intensive houses, especially detached houses, contributes to increasing the environmental burden in the city. In Oslo, we don’t have many layers and areas where you can build. Detached houses require a lot of space and energy, and provide a car-based urban structure, says Mobasheri.

– Isn’t it too invasive of people’s privacy to set requirements on how many people must live together to build a single house?

– I don’t want to say that. After all, we politicians are regulating in many areas, which means you are indirectly or directly interfering with people’s privacy, says Mobasheri.

He insists that this is not the most important home policy issue for the party.

Oslo will win over workers and the poor in the East

The district board also wants three other important things in the election campaign. One is cheap treatment at the dentist. Second, withdrawal of public services such as cleaning and bus driving. Cuts in public transport fares are third. The party will halve the price of monthly tickets and single tickets will be valid for three hours.

Taxes on large residential and commercial properties should be increased to fund the promises.

The County Board believes that Red should give priority to the following groups in the elections: residents of municipal housing, workers in hospitals, nursing homes and kindergartens, as well as young people, students and others with uncertain terms and part-time work.

– We want to reach the working class in Oslo, says Mobasheri.

They will also prioritize Groruddalen, Søndre Nordstrand and the city center districts in the east.

Mobasheri says voter turnout is low in these areas. Therefore, Rødt wants to prioritize them.

Stick to city council parties

Oslo Rødt has put a difficult autumn behind it. Former group leader Ivor Evanrut left the party in dramatic fashion. Mobasheri has had to endure several verbal attacks from leading politicians in the three city council parties since he took office. He said that there is a good atmosphere in the party now.

A new survey conducted by Norstat for Aftenposten in Oslo shows that Rødt is stable at 7-8 percent. But the four red-green parties are likely to lose power.

Mobasheri says the polls are very balanced and he is confident of a continued red-green government.

– But I hope that the other red-green parties will understand who the main enemy is, and it is not primarily red, he tells his critics in the city council parties with a slight frown.

At the annual meeting, Rødt will also decide on further forms of cooperation with city council parties in the future.