Whose homes are they anyway?

If hoteliers can build for employees, then there is land for everyone.

IN the Canaries, hoteliers have offered to pay for the building of accommodation for employees. The hoteliers in those islands have similar issues to their counterparts in the Balearics - a shortage of qualified personnel, deterred by issues with housing. The Canaries have similar housing issues to the Balearics, period; that’s a reason why there are protests this weekend.

TUI have said that they will build accommodation, the Balearic government has a proposed measure for reclassifying tourism land to residential land so that accommodation can be built for hospitality employees. All these ideas make sense but at the same time they make little sense in terms of the general housing crisis. If the land is available, if it can be reclassified, why not build affordable homes anyway? And who, in truth, should have priority - residents of Mallorca or employees mainly on seasonal contracts?

If one consults municipal maps, one will discover that land is classified in various ways. One classification is simply municipal land, which the government would like town halls to cede so that it can enter into arrangements for the development of affordable housing. Another is tourism land, most of it defined under a years-old planning mechanism with the acronym POOT. There was a quota system for tourism building. It is no longer necessary. No more hotels or any other tourist accommodation are needed; or shouldn’t be needed.

Yes, it would be good if hotel employees and indeed other seasonal workers (the security forces, for instance) could be housed easily. But don’t let’s forget the residents. All these land purposes, and there is no greater purpose than a decent, affordable place to live.