Law 24/2015 on the housing emergency and energy poverty

This law is among the most effective in the EU in providing vulnerable people protection against energy poverty. It was the result of a People’s Legislative Initiative (Iniciativa Legislativa Popular – ILP) put forward by APE, PAH and the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Observatory (Observatorio de los Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales – ODESC).

This initiative was developed with the first-hand knowledge that these organisations and social movements had received from directly affected people. The draft law laid out the urgent needs as shown by people’s day-to-day experiences, with the help of legal experts who were also members of these organisations. The content and strategy were shared with the grassroots members of the platforms and social movements. While signatures were being collected, advocacy work was done with political parties and meetings were held with their legal teams to negotiate technical issues and legal terminology.

As a result, for the first time ever in Spain, a law forbade the practice of cutting off the electricity of vulnerable families. This was achieved through the introduction of the so-called precautionary principle: before cutting off supply, utility companies must first contact social services in order to verify whether or not the customer is energy vulnerable.

Main beneficiaries: companies, the general population and tenants.