Refilling 'Empty Spain': Saving vanishing villages with 130 strategies and multi-million funding

AMBITIOUS plans are afoot to halt the rural exodus and prevent huge swathes of Spain from becoming uninhabited as their existing populations grow older and those of working age leave - around €10 billion of the country's European Union development funds will be ploughed into saving the countryside.

'Depopulation' is increasing rapidly in inland parts a long way from large towns and cities as they become trapped in an unbreakable circle: Low inhabitant numbers, mostly retired and many elderly, few young adults and few or no children mean there is little call for 'modern' facilities, schools, long-distance transport links or job opportunities, and companies – including internet and mobile phone service providers – are not willing to invest in these areas as their minimal customer base would automatically be loss-making; but the lack of these facilities means young adults and those of child-bearing age cannot feasibly live there.

Despite last year's lockdown making city-dwellers and those in flats or townhouses without terraces start to yearn for outside spaces of their own, and the rise in home-working due to the pandemic meaning the longed-for countryside life of many seem more of a reality as being close to the office ceased to dictate where they set up home, without practical features such as schools for their children and good, fast internet, this apparently obvious solution continues to prove largely unworkable.

Rural campaign group Teruel Existe, which sought to remind the powers that be in the capital that the sparsely-populated province of Teruel (Aragón) did in fact exist and deserve consideration, became a political party and, for the first time in Spain's history, gained a seat in Parliament after the November 2019 elections. 

Its MP, Tomás Guitarte, has been able to make his voice heard where it matters, and a nationwide string of groups along the lines of Teruel Existe have banded together to create strength in numbers, calling itself España Vaciada ('Emptied Spain').

Guitarte stresses that 'time is running out' for the rural vastness which is losing inhabitants hand over fist, and that if 'in a year or two' no action is taken, 'many villages will literally disappear'.

This has already happened over the past 50 years or so: Villages in provinces such as Teruel and Cuenca (Castilla-La Mancha) ended up being inhabited by just one family, their headcount dwindling to single figures, and eventually leaving or dying out, with only ghost towns and empty houses left behind.

Also for the first time in Spain's political history, a comprehensive plan with a deadline and funding has been created: A total of 130 measures, split into 10 major areas, have been penned and, backed by the promised €10bn in EU funds, seeks to 'guarantee equality' for Spain's least-occupied parts.

Guitarte, and España Vaciada's leader Antonio Saz, are both said to be pleased so far with what national president Pedro Sánchez has pledged to start putting in place 'within a very, very short time'.

Tax 'privileges', and 'compensation' payments from 'net pollution producers'

The measures described could even mean a completely different tax régime for isolated rural villages – given that the job market, companies, society and the population in general are becoming more and more centralised, with coastal areas and the larger cities being densely-inhabited at the expense of inland areas outside major urban hubs, sole traders and small businesses in the countryside have far less opportunities to earn a profit, and even less so when a huge percentage of it goes in taxes.

Concluding that it is not fair for traders in a village of 30 residents to be taxed in the same way as those in a town of 300,000, rural Spain is likely to see major exemptions, reductions or much lower percentages of their earnings being taken off them – the action plan does not specify figures, but says: “This could be effected in various ways and on different taxes, such as Impuesto sobre Sociedades ['Company Tax', charged as a percentage of profits], inheritance or donation tax, personal income tax, value-added tax [IVA], and Social Security [National Insurance] contributions.”

As well as giving those struggling to make a living in the countryside a bit of financial respite, the aim is to make it cheaper and more profitable for companies to set up branches in rural Spain, providing job opportunities in these areas.

Another taxation scheme which could benefit 'Empty Spain' could be a 'green contribution': Those provinces, districts, towns or cities which are 'net producers' of carbon dioxide, or whose CO2 emissions are greater than the amount of CO2 they use – and also 'net producers' of other pollutants – would pay a higher level of tax on their contaminating activities which would go directly to rural areas as 'compensation', specifically those rural areas with a large amount of woodland or forestry zones, as trees literally 'eat' CO2 and produce and pump out oxygen.

Connections, connectedness and connectivity

The 'survival strategy' for 'Empty Spain' includes what president Pedro Sánchez calls a '100/30/30 Plan': Internet coverage of at least 100MB guaranteed everywhere in the country, without exception; a law making it compulsory for education and healthcare facilities to be no more than 30 minutes by car away from any home anywhere in Spain; and at least one major, long-distance highway within a maximum of 30 kilometres from any residential area nationwide. 

Additionally, the 5G roll-out will reach every corner of Spain, including, and especially, those rural parts which, at present, have no mobile phone or internet coverage at all and where residents have to rely on landlines to communicate.

On the healthcare side, hospital transport will be guaranteed, ambulances must be able to reach any location in Spain within 30 minutes, pharmacies with fast-track delivery of drugs from the manufacturers to ensure availability must be in place in all villages, rural GP practices ringfenced and prevented from shutting down so as to ensure everyone can see a doctor in person, improved working conditions put in place for healthcare professionals so as to attract talent to country clinics, and patients' medical history will be on a central computer system so it can be accessed anywhere in the country.

In practice, the latter is already the case in most hospital and health service catchment areas, but is less likely to be so in very remote, isolated villages.

Rail connections will be improved over the medium to long term, a 'Return Plan' created to offer incentives to young adults originally from small, remote villages and who had to leave to find jobs – encouraging them to 'come home' – and a drive to promote the positives about rural Spain will come in the form of advertising and general campaigning.

Promoting tourism, leisure, organic farming, renewable energy production...

This promotional scheme will seek to offer incentives for organic farming, renewable energy generation – with laws in place preventing countryside from being sacrificed to gigantic solar-panel parks and wind-farms, but using rural areas as a hub for creating 'green' energy sources in a way that does not tarnish the landscape – and sustainable tourism.

These campaigns will seek to raise awareness of the produce from 'empty' countryside which finds its way into homes and shops everywhere else in the country, in a bid to generate increased sales, and will promote rural tourism, local heritage, and leisure and adventure activities.

A full strategy for housing in rural Spain, from schemes to get young adults onto the property ladder through to home renovation grants, will be drawn up, and a detailed map for police and emergency service coverage created so as to guarantee every occupied area, village or residential home was within reach of these within a maximum period of time and that adequate cover to ensure protection, security and crime prevention would no longer be a postcode lottery.

The detailed document compiled by Sánchez's government, with input from Teruel Existe and España Vaciada, refers to Article 138 of the Spanish Constitution, which states that all territories and regions in Spain must be treated equally in financial terms and that it is the responsibility of the State to ensure 'fair and adequate economic equilibrium' across all parts of the country.

This Article will be amended to broaden its meaning and make specific mention of territories that are suffering from 'depopulation'.