Spain:A row over plans to demolish holiday homes in Spain continued yesterday as uncertainly remained over the implication for foreigners with property there.
The Spanish government wants to pull down hundreds of illegally-built homes along the coastline as part of a €5 billion initiative to stop environmental damage.
But the move has put it at loggerheads with officials in the provinces concerned, who fear tourism and investment will suffer, as well as with people who bought the homes in good faith.
Yesterday, in an attempt to defuse the row, the Spanish government pledged to "work alongside the country's regional governments" to reach an agreement.
Spain's environment minister, Cristina Narbona, said: "there must be a consensus on the action to be taken in order to slow down the intense overcrowding of the coastline."
Ms Narbona, speaking at a meeting of the country's environmental advisory board, added: "this overloading of the coastline has meant that rich and important ecosystems and habitats are being destroyed."
She warned that the country had to act quickly to reduce development in coastal areas as climate change could cause Spain's beaches to recede by as much as 15 metres by 2050.
Hundreds of thousands of foreigners have bought homes in Spain. Spanish beaches are public property and construction is banned within 100 metres of the coastl. But the tourism boom led to developers ignoring the rules and many developments have been built too close to the sea.
Maria Jose Caballero, head of the coastal campaign for Greenpeace, said: "the environment ministry have still not said when exactly this demolition will go ahead and they have failed to reach an agreement with regional governments. The plans also have the potential to provoke serious alarm among homeowners and this is something the government need to address quickly."
The plan is to demolish properties along 480 miles of Spain's coastline. They are to pull down homes, chalets and hotels built too close to the coast and often too high.
Forty-four per cent of the Spanish population live along the country's coastline and 80 per cent of the nearly 60 million tourists who visit Spain every year choose to stay on the coast. - (PA)