The Councilor for Economy, Innovation and Finance of the City of Madrid, Engracia Hidalgo, presented on Thursday the budgets for the next fiscal year 2026, which she announced as the most invested since 2008. If then they reached 963.98 million, largely thanks to the completion of the M-30 tunnels, now the figure remains at 751 million euros thanks to the major works: 281 million will be distributed between the undergrounding of the A-5, that of the Paseo de la Castellana in front of the Cuatro Torres and the coverage of the M-30. That is, the Municipality will invest 200 million less in 2026 compared to almost 20 years ago. The overall expenditure of the Consistory rises to 6,578 million euros, almost 5% more than last year, and also grows in all sectors of the government. Some numbers that did not convince the opposition.
Even if it also does so in Construction, which increases by more than 5% compared to 2024, it is still not enough for the opposition. Both the PSOE and Más Madrid describe the budget allocation for house construction as “ridiculous”. They criticize that of the 6.5 billion euros of spending planned for next year, only 88 will be allocated to what is one of the main concerns of Madrid’s citizens: having a roof to live under without spending their entire salary on this.
The Municipality of Madrid claims that at the moment there are 6,100 houses under construction but, while the Treasury delegate claims that a thousand of these houses will be delivered next year, the socialists criticize that in 2024 just over 200 will be delivered. At the moment there are 60,000 people on the waiting list to access public housing, they recall from the PSOE.
On the other hand, the Social Policies, Family and Equality area is the one that increases its budget the most compared to last year and goes from 375 million to 402 million euros. Within this increase, Hidalgo highlighted Almeida’s birth plan. Just for aid to families with children, the Municipality estimates spending 14 million euros. The Treasury delegate underlines that social spending, divided between different sectors of the government, will increase by 12 points compared to the latest budget.
This social expenditure includes 335 million euros earmarked for new home help contracts. From Más Madrid they consider it “embarrassing” that Almeida’s government is “boasting” about it in the accounts because this increase in spending “is exclusively thanks to the workers, who have fought for more than a year for the Municipality to respect the law and allocate the necessary resources established by the contract to carry out the service”, reproached councilor Sara Ladra.
Another big bet of the PP for next year is to give more money to the districts so that they can manage them autonomously. This is what the municipal government calls “territorial rebalancing policies”. In total they will receive 1,059 million euros, 15% more than last year, and the nine districts in the South with the lowest incomes will get almost half of it, 560 million.
The PSOE sees a trick behind this announcement. “The territorial rebalancing is not such, since the works that are being completed are mainly in the north, with the exception of the Gran Vía del Sureste, and the demolition of scalextric from Puente de Vallecas,” criticizes councilor Enma López.
In this sense, Más Madrid believes that the trap whereby there will not be a real territorial rebalancing lies in the way in which the people of Madrid will pay taxes depending on the neighborhood in which they live. “While all the people of Madrid pay a assessment of unfair and poorly designed rubbish, this budget once again lowers the IBI for those who have more”, criticizes Ladra. “A drop of 60 euros for a neighbor from El Viso and just four euros for one from San Cristobal, in Villaverde”, he adds.
