The Generalitat president, Salvador Illa, said on Monday that the Catalan government will open preliminary public consultation on a draft law aimed at simplifying urban planning and environmental procedures, with the stated goal of issuing some building permits in as little as one month. For residents, developers and businesses waiting on housing or industrial works, the proposed change is meant to cut current delays that the government says can stretch to nearly a year.

According to the Generalitat, the measure is the draft bill on the simplification of procedures in the urban planning and environmental fields, which is listed as being in the preliminary public consultation phase. Illa announced the move at an event held at the Ebro factory site in Barcelona's Zona Franca, alongside the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, and the Minister for Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition, Sílvia Paneque, according to the Generalitat press office.

What the draft law would change

The government says the bill is designed to speed up three main areas of processing. The most immediate headline measure is to reduce the time needed to grant building permits to up to one month.

  • Building permit procedures would be reduced to up to one month, according to Illa's announcement.
  • Derived urban planning instruments would be processed in six to eight months, according to reports of the presentation.
  • Environmental licences and authorisations would also be cut to one month, under the plan presented on Monday.

Reports of the presentation said the future law would also use positive administrative silence in some planning procedures, meaning an application could advance if the administration does not respond within the deadline and the required reports have been filed. Those reports also said the government plans to create an Observatori de Llicències, or Licence Observatory, and to allow some private initiatives to be declared strategic or of general interest. Those details were reported from the event, but readers should note that the full draft text was not included in the official reform-strategy page.

"La voluntat del Govern és acompanyar ajuntaments per resoldre problemes dels ciutadans, especialment l'habitatge," Illa said, according to the Generalitat press office.

In British English, that means the government's aim is to support town and city councils in solving residents' problems, especially housing.

Why this matters locally

The change matters most for councils, homeowners, housing developers and firms trying to start construction works. If the law is approved in its current direction, permit applications linked to housing and some industrial projects could move much faster than they do now, which the government says should help unblock construction.

The reform is also tied to the Generalitat's wider administrative reform strategy. On the same official reform page, the urban planning and environmental bill appears alongside other measures already approved since October 2025, including a decree simplifying regulatory provisions approved on 21 October 2025 and amendments to digital administration approved on 25 November 2025.

For now, the concrete next step is the start of the preliminary public consultation, which the president said would open on Monday. People who want to follow the measure can monitor the Generalitat's administrative reform strategy page and the Generalitat press office, where the government publishes official announcements and updates on draft legislation.

Primary sources: Generalitat de Catalunya, eb.gencat.cat, govern.cat. Reported by Source Text Link, Clara Blanchar, Laura Casserres Capdevila, eldiario.es, Paula Solanas Alfaro, Raquel Navarro, Pau Rodríguez, larazon.es, Europa Press Barcelona.