Miguel de los Toyos took office as Deputy Minister of Territorial Planning and Urban Agenda of the Basque Government last March, after leaving the post of Mayor of Eibar, which he had held since 2008. Therefore, his knowledge of the Opengela project is complete, both from a municipal point of view and a wider point of view coming from the responsibilities of his current post.

In this interview, he gives his point of view on the progress of the project, coordinated by his department of the Basque Government, which implements neighbourhood offices to undertake urban regeneration processes and is financed by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Commission. Otxarkoaga (Bilbao) and Txonta (Eibar) are the pilot schemes, and the process to replicate the model in other places has already begun.

You are familiar with the Opengela project. It requires a high level of coordination between institutions, and also with the neighbourhood. Two years after it started, how do you rate the progress of the project? 

It is a project that has three pillars, and none can be dispensed with: the Basque Government, as the promoter; city councils, which require a serious and convinced commitment; and the neighbourhood communities in which you want to act. This means that the previous work, of informing and of showing commitment, is long and progressive. Therefore, the tangible – the building renovation, comes in the final phase of the project, which does not mean that it has not been worked on previously. You have to invest a lot of time so that in the end, the project progresses and has strength in its foundations. At this time, those foundations are already in place and now we will begin to see how the building grows.

Europe is going through a period of strong commitment to the ‘Renovation Wave’, within the European Green Deal, as one of the main driving forces to boost the economy after the pandemic. How does the Opengela project fit into this context?

Opengela, from the outset, is aligned with all public policies at international, European, national and Basque Country levels. In 2015, the United Nations established the 17 SDGs, where SDG 11 is the one for sustainable cities. Opengela is a practical example of the materialisation of this SDG. There is now talk of three transitions and all of them converge on Opengela. Green transition: Opengela aims for energy efficiency and decarbonisation by 2050. Digital transition: Energy communities are created, the digitalisation of consumption, electric mobility. Social and demographic transition: It is an urban regeneration project that considers not only the environment (buildings, streets, squares) but also people. It works on training, employment, protection of vulnerable people… The virtue of Opengela is that it is aligned with the Green Deal from its origin, before the pact itself existed. 

There are numerous urban regeneration projects in Spain and Europe, what distinguishes Opengela?

This project has a holistic, transversal vision. The urban environment has been identified not only by the government but also by the city councils. And the social part is fundamental because it acts in vulnerable neighbourhoods.

The success of this European project will depend on the possibility of scaling up the model beyond Bilbao and Eibar. There are already other Basque municipalities that are taking the first steps to apply the same model. How is this process progressing?

The two municipalities that joined the project, Bilbao and Eibar, have already been joined by another two: Lasarte and Durango. And soon, Pasaia will also be part of it. A lot of internal work has been done, and we are now moving forward to achieve visible results in urban regeneration. We are at an embryonic stage. At the same time, we are incorporating four other Biscayan town councils into Opengela: Portugalete, Valle de Trápaga, Abanto-Zierbena and Santurtzi. In their reflections on how to act in their areas, they have identified urban regeneration as a strategic project. The same is happening in Alava, in the Ayala Valley. This shows the interest in integral urban regeneration. We will soon receive additional funds from Europe and, in order to promote urban regeneration projects, we have received the strategic interest of more than 70 municipalities and more than 110 initiatives. From a pilot experience in two municipalities that is still in the development phase, Opengela has attracted the interest of other municipalities that have a similar diagnosis. This is a symptom that we were right to present this European project. We took a step forward, and others are confirming that it was the right step to take.

What do you consider to be the main difficulty in undertaking the project?

I have seen most of this project from the City Council, as Mayor. The main complexity of Opengela is to unite people’s wishes and make all the communities and people who participate in the project see how it will improve their quality of life. First, the Basque Government explains the project to the town councils and then it is the town councils who do the same work with the neighbourhood. It is a slow, progressive process. If it can be difficult for a community of 16 homes to decide to install a lift, imagine a community of 200 homes in a vulnerable environment. We have to get them to agree. The exercise of teaching and visualising the opportunity may be complex, but it is undoubtedly indispensable.

It is essential that these urban regeneration processes are carried out hand in hand with the neighbourhood. You have listened to the concerns of residents on the street, how do you think the project has been received?

There are often differences. There are communities that have a concern and have detected their own needs: the lift, fixing the façade … In that case, it is easier to approach, and you become a collaborator. Other communities have not detected this need and view it with a certain scepticism. This initial reluctance is more easily overcome as they see the projects in their neighbourhood go ahead, see the buildings being successfully refurbished and the positive impact this has on the daily lives of those living nearby.

Opengela’s European projection is undeniable. Why should other parts of the European Union pay attention to the process being developed in the Basque Country with regard to urban regeneration?

We all have to learn from each other. We have looked elsewhere. But I think we have initiatives to teach here. It probably will not work for everyone because each country and municipality has its own idiosyncrasies. But there may be variables that can be useful for them. The greatest virtues of Opengela are, on the one hand, that it is aligned with the cities we want to achieve by 2050 and with the path we want to take to reach that year. And, on the other hand, the transversal nature of the project. Intellectually, it is well armed. We do not say so ourselves, this comes from the Ministry of the Urban Agenda and the national and international forums we attend. Now we are taking it to vulnerable neighbourhoods and transforming it into something tangible. I hope it will be a reference for other urban environments and inspire other initiatives.

The essence of the Opengela project is urban regeneration and, specifically, the refurbishment of buildings. Both Txonta, in Eibar, and Otxarkoaga, in Bilbao, are making progress in the work of the communities that have joined the programme. The first building works are already underway, even though the pandemic has hampered the process. 

In Otxarkoaga, where the project covers 16 apartment buildings with 240 homes, work is already progressing in 5 apartment buildings and 108 homes: Txotena 18, 20, 22 and 24, as well as Larrakoetxe 1.

In Txotena Street, the scaffolding indicates that the works are underway. But, in addition, all kinds of specialised tasks continue to be defined: thermal installations and renewable energies, thermal enclosures…

Contact between the office and the residents is constant, with all kinds of queries related to the works or the replacement of windows.

In Larrakoetxe 1, the execution phase of the project has been completed. There, the neighbourhood office has participated in the review of the construction specifications, the evaluation of the bids and the selection of the construction company to carry out the work.

In Txonta, the office re-established relations with the neighbourhood in June last year, always in compliance with strict security measures due to the pandemic. And the work has continued.

In total, the Opengela project is working on 221 homes in 17 apartment buildings. The buildings with the greatest progress are Txonta 36, 38 and 40, as well as Txonta 2, with a total of 67 homes, which are already nearing the end of the building works. In Txonta 3, work has already begun and is expected to be completed within a year.

For the Opengela model to be replicated in any city, it is necessary to lay the foundations for the way the neighbourhood offices operate and for each one of them to be organised according to common requirements, beyond the particularities of each neighbourhood. For this reason, this European project has drawn up a ‘White Book’ that summarises the basic principles that should govern the offices that are set up. 

The document is based on the premise that the housing stock in the Basque Country – 53% of which was built before 1960 – must face a transition towards a more sustainable model, and not only in terms of energy. According to the ‘Diagnosis of the intervention needs of the Basque Country’s building stock’, 25.85% of the population is in a situation of high or very high vulnerability, which makes it urgent to activate a plan that focuses not only on the environment, but also on the quality of life of citizens.

This is precisely the aim of Opengela, which seeks to move towards the sustainability of the housing stock in the Basque Country, where the potential social, economic, and environmental impact is highlighted. It is therefore conceived as a strategic project and is fully aligned with the objectives defined in the ‘Euskadi Basque Country 2030’ Strategy. This strategy promotes not only energy transition, but also a wide range of specific targets of the Sustainable Development Goals that the Strategy is committed to transferring to the actions of the Basque Government. Furthermore, the development of Opengela is fully aligned with the guidelines produced by the ‘Basque Country Urban Agenda – Bultzatu 2050’. 

The Opengela model is based on the implementation of district offices, which unify the regeneration processes of the neighbourhoods, serving both the neighbourhood and coordinating the rest of the groups involved. Opengela, which starts with two pilot projects in the neighbourhoods of Otxarkoaga (Bilbao) and Txonta (Eibar), seeks to be replicable throughout the Basque Autonomous Community and to this end establishes guidelines that facilitate scalability to other territories.

The success of the project means that the office’s activity has had results on the neighbourhood, the comprehensive refurbishment of its buildings, the improvement of the comfort of its homes and the improvement of the quality of life of the people who live in them, as well as the direct impact of the investment in the development of local economic activity in the area. To measure this impact, a monitoring tool is required. A tool which includes the definition of performance indicators for the project in the neighbourhood where the office is located, as well as indicators of its socio-economic, environmental, and urban impact.

The results of the management of the office itself will also be measured, as well as those of the different professionals and companies participating in the project and the participation of citizens in the improvement of their own neighbourhood. The neighbourhood offices or One-Stop-Shops (OSS) will accompany and energise the refurbishment processes and will be responsible for measuring and supervising these actions, for which common lines have been established to facilitate this work.

Five areas of action and three levels of coordination

The indicators that will show whether positive results are obtained will address five dimensions: the building (in terms of greater energy efficiency or comfort), the urban and environmental improvement (less noise, greater safety, accessibility…), the socio-demographic dimension (less social vulnerability or better public services), the socio-economic dimension (greater employability, lower domestic energy costs…) and the management of the neighbourhood office (management of aid, financing, knowledge of the refurbishment process…).

To guarantee the results, a unitary, hierarchical, and planned management structure at a regional level is necessary, which, at the same time, is flexible in its development. The unitary nature of this structure will be based on three components: conceptual, financial, and technical, which requires the constitution of a management tool on a global scale that coordinates and controls the distribution of financial contributions, the programming of actions, the criteria and procedures for intervention and the monitoring of the degree of compliance with the objectives set out in the various areas.

To this end, the Opengela model proposes a three-level hierarchy. Firstly, a Programme Management Body (PMB) will be in charge of coordinating the different local district offices and will develop the Urban Rehabilitation and/or Regeneration Plan established in the Basque Country. At a local level, if appropriate, a Network of Local Management Entities (LME) will be set up, coordinated, and managed by the PBM. Finally, it would be advisable to create Area Management Entities (AME) in each of the Rehabilitation Areas, particularly when these areas are of a significant size.

The PBM will have a public-private character and will be the tool through which the competent regional body will implement its rehabilitation policies in coordination with the companies and private financial means that may be raised. Furthermore, it will be assisted by an Expert Technical Team (ETT), made up of professionals with extensive experience in the development of this type of action.

One of the purposes of the ETT will be to transmit, to the members of the offices, the guidelines established for their work or derived from the strategies designed at the Regional Level. It will be multidisciplinary, along the lines that have been established, made up, for example, of professionals from architecture, engineering, administration, social education, etc. They will assist the offices in tasks ranging from the preparation of information sheets aimed at a better understanding of the process by the agents involved, to the establishment of the profiles and functions of the personnel and the criteria and scales for their recruitment.

The active core of the programme are the offices themselves. They are the tool through which the Management Entities can provide the beneficiaries of the rehabilitation, as well as the other agents involved in the actions, with all the necessary facilities to make the intervention in the corresponding area possible and attractive. In this way, bureaucratic procedures are minimised, and support is provided throughout the process.

All these bases for the operation and running of the Opengela model are set out in a ‘White Book’, which serves as a guide for the future implementation of neighbourhood offices in the Basque Country.

• The extraordinary contribution from the Basque Government’s Berpiztu programme will enable work to be carried out on half a thousand homes and their respective neighbourhoods in Abanto-Zierbena, Portugalete, Santurtzi and Valle de Trapaga.
• The Department is already working with the Aiaraldea town councils to incorporate new neighbourhoods with an additional 3.5 million.

 The Basque Government will allocate an extraordinary 14 million euros between 2021 and 2023 to urban regeneration programmes in four neighbourhoods in Ezkerraldea-Meatzaldea, within the framework of projects in disadvantaged districts or areas of preferential action. The Department of Territorial Planning, Housing and Transport of the Basque Executive met this Monday in Bilbao with the town councils that will receive the funds to promote integral actions in neighbourhoods: Abanto-Zierbena, Portugalete, Santurtzi and the Trapaga Valley. A total of 522 families will directly benefit from the additional funds for integral urban regeneration in this region.

In each of these neighbourhoods, a proximity office, known as opengelas, will be created to provide neighbourhoods with access to financing and professionals to improve the accessibility and energy efficiency of buildings. Projects to improve urban environments will also be promoted and there will be training initiatives to boost the employability of people living in the neighbourhood.

In the case of Abanto-Zierbena, work will be carried out on 200 homes in the Las Peñucas neighbourhood, in Portugalete on 23 homes in Grumete Diego street, in Santurtzi in the Aurora Vildósola complex with 104 and finally in Valle de Trapaga in the San Andrés neighbourhood, with 135 low-density workers’ homes and 60 block homes.

The 14 million euros come from the Berpiztu programme for the Economic Recovery and Employment of the Basque Country 2020-24, within which the Basque Government has activated a special plan with a total extraordinary budget of 180 million euros to promote tractor projects in the areas of preferential action -Ezkerraldea-Meatzaldea, Enkarterri, Oarsoaldea and Aiaraldea-. The initiatives will begin this year and will run until 2023. The specific amount earmarked for comprehensive action in vulnerable neighbourhoods in Ezkerraldea-Meatzaldea will be distributed as 1.5 million in 2021, 6.4 million in 2022 and 6 million in 2023. At the moment, the Vice-Ministry of Territorial Planning is working to identify new comprehensive urban regeneration projects with 3.5 million euros available to promote this type of initiative with the councils of the Aiaraldea.

The Deputy Minister for Territorial Planning, Miguel de los Toyos, indicated that «with the four new neighbourhoods, we are practically doubling the number of places in the Basque Country where we are implementing the Basque model of urban regeneration; it is a pioneering way of intervening in vulnerable areas through the energy and accessibility rehabilitation of homes and neighbourhoods that is producing good results and which, in addition to improving the quality of life of the neighbourhoods, is making an impact on training people to give them new job opportunities; it is a formula that is already serving as an example for other autonomous communities».

With the new neighbourhoods, the Opengela integral urban regeneration project will be active in a total of nine neighbourhoods in the Basque Country. Opengelas are already up and running in the two neighbourhoods of the European Opengela project with which the model is being tested -Otxarkoaga in Bilbao and Txonta in Eibar-, as well as in Aramotz, Durango, and Basaundi Bailara, in Lasarte-Oria. In 2021, the Andonaegi neighbourhood in Pasaia will also be added to the neighbourhoods with a proximity office, with an ordinary budget of eight million euros from the Department of Territorial Planning, Housing and Transport.