France: Senate passes housing bill giving mayors a veto over social-housing allocations

The French Senate's centre-right majority passed the "Relance et décentralisation du logement" bill at first reading, amending the government's text toward private investment, mayoral power and slower energy-renovation deadlines. Mayors gain a "motivated right of veto" over individual social-housing allocations and will chair allocation commissions.

The proposal from late June has now cleared its first parliamentary hurdle — direct localism-vs-centralism fight over social housing, exactly the tension in UK council-allocation debates.