I asked Morgan Berger to think about an action plan to meet real estate needs.
You were present at the UGVC harvest meeting on Monday 4 September. Does the decline in the cognac market worry you?
Do not worry too much, because the fundamentals remain good, but it is a point of vigilance in relation to the dynamism of the territory. Even if there is a slight settling, the results remain excellent. We still compare with a record year. Last year, it never sold…
I asked Morgan Berger to think about an action plan to meet real estate needs.
You were present at the UGVC harvest meeting on Monday 4 September. Does the decline in the cognac market worry you?
Do not worry too much, because the fundamentals remain good, but it is a point of vigilance in relation to the dynamism of the territory. Even if there is a slight settling, the results remain excellent. We still compare with a record year. Last year, so much cognac had never been sold anywhere in the world! We must therefore relativize. That said, the discourse changes compared to last year and the turn could be quite brutal for some. This is why we will be very vigilant about the more fragile intermediate structures in the sector. Some feel a drop in orders and start looking for other markets.
The Agglo will support these companies?
We have to be careful not to break down the network set up here and that we provide support for those for whom the change will perhaps be a little too abrupt, because their business structure makes them a little more vulnerable.
The “housing crisis” in the agglomeration is another of your major concerns…
The housing situation actually worries me, because there has been a sharp slowdown in construction, both in social housing but also in private housing, with interest rates and materials which have increased. An old adage says “when the building is fine, everything is fine”, and there we feel that there is a big slowdown. So there too, a point of vigilance. Without being alarmist either…
How to solve this problem, when, at the same time, there is a strong tension on the land?
We are going to decree general mobilization. At the last Presidents’ Conference, I asked my vice-president, Morgan Berger, to start thinking about an action plan to meet real estate needs. We see that one of the first concerns in recruitment is finding accommodation. However, we can not be satisfied with building a very attractive territory if behind it we cannot transform the test. We invest in infrastructure, leisure centres, but if people cannot find accommodation, they are forced to move away. For the carbon footprint, like local wealth, it’s not good.
What levers to activate, knowing that the law on zero net artificialisation of soils (ZAN), which must halve the rate of concreting (by 2030), then ban it (by 2050), will not help ?
Already, the PLUi, which should normally be approved at the end of February at the beginning of March, will allow us to open hectares for construction, much less than before, of course, but, luckily for us, the size of the land requested has greatly down from 20 years ago. So all in all it balances out. We need this PLUi to be adopted quickly because many municipalities have almost no more land. We also need to mobilize the last wastelands in the villages, because we can no longer afford to keep unused buildings.
You also asked for a relaxation of the rules, arguing the exception of cognac.
We asked that the new Sraddet – the regional plan which sets the main guidelines for land use planning – that the Region is in the process of drafting, take into account our particularity for the storage of cognac, namely imposing 20 to 25 m between the cellars for security reasons. To date, our PLUi complies with the current Sraddet and the ZAN framework which is not yet in force. But to get there, everyone will have to play the game. We cannot ask elected officials to go to ZAN, without asking firefighters to review their safety rules or insurers to adapt. The whole ecosystem must make an effort.
Let’s talk finance. With your expenses soaring, do you still have the means to match your ambitions?
Yes. The Agglo has made a very big effort for 3 years to find a completely healthy financial situation and which gives good visibility on the future. The triptych is always the following: develop the service to people, we do it; develop support for municipalities, we do so via the solidarity grant of €3.4 million; and carry a territory, with a certain ambition. So it’s true, over the past year, we’ve had to deal with various shocks. Today the situation is fragile, so we have to be very vigilant about the operation which can quickly change, more than the investment where we have our income.
Especially when you will have to take on new charges, with the transfer of waste collection to January 1, 2025, since there was no review clause with Calitom.
The transfer is initiated, in accordance with the deliberation taken last December. With three objectives: to rationalize, optimize and adapt waste collection locally to the challenges of the territory. If we put ourselves in a situation, I continue to exchange with my fellow presidents of intermunicipalities in Charente, because they express concerns. Grand Cognac has always been extremely supportive and there is no question of creating difficulties for anyone, so we are not closed to discussion, ever. If all of our expectations were taken into account in a firm and definitive way, I will put the question to the elected officials. The door is not closed. It never is in Grand Cognac.
Another subject that mobilizes all your energy is the doubling of the RN141…
The CPER [contrat de plan Etat-Région, NDLR], this is my very big concern. It is being negotiated. The last meeting in July, in the prefecture, created great frustration, because currently, even if it is not the final version, it is clearly implied that in the CPER to come there would only be studies from Hiersac-Malvieille, no works. For Grand Cognac it is non-negotiable, we must have in this CPER not only the work of Hiersac-Malvieille, but also the studies of the Cognac-Saintes section to join the A10. We had a meeting Friday evening with my three fellow presidents of the agglomerations of Angoulême, Saintes and Royan, we are writing a joint letter to the regional prefect to remind him that the RN141 and the full functionality of the train line between Royan and Angoulême are our priorities. The Agglo will also surely organize an event during the month of September to demonstrate our determination on this subject.
“Our attractiveness policy is bearing fruit”
“Making you want to live here” : this is one of the main objectives of the president, who is betting on a proactive communication policy to “show that it is a territory that is changing”, and attract new inhabitants and new skills. With, in particular, a major operation to present the summer in Cognaçais in Paris. “And clearly, with regard to the summer season, this attractiveness policy is bearing fruit.he rejoices. All the festivals were a hit, the number of overnight stays increased, as did the number of visitors to the Cognac Museum: +1,100 visitors. We are approaching 5,000 visitors, that has never happened. The same goes for tourist visits, the number of which has doubled (300 people). We feel that a tourist level we are experiencing a change, it shows. It means it radiates. I do not forget the cognac houses which also invest a lot to develop the attractiveness of the territory. »
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