BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. The decision to focus on housing for the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) could not be more timely and relevant, Head of the European Commission Housing Task Force Matthew Baldwin said in an exclusive interview with Trend on the sidelines of the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku.
"The housing crisis is not just about bricks and mortar. It is affecting social cohesion, competitiveness, labour and educational mobility, even our demographics and democracies. I hope that this event will allow us to better understand the different factors involved in triggering the crisis in so many different places, and more importantly, to share knowledge and ways how the many countries and regions around the world are tackling the different dimensions of the challenges. The decision to focus on housing for WUF13 here in Baku could not be more timely and relevant! And the urban dimension is super important because we are seeing this major housing affordability stress particularly in big cities across Europe. From our side in the European Commission, we have now delivered our European Affordable Housing Plan and look forward to sharing our experiences and learning from other regions in the world," he said.
Baldwin noted that in Europe, housing policy is primarily the responsibility of Member States, regions and cities and local authorities who have been working hard to find the right national and local solutions.
"The Housing Task Force was established in 2025 under the leadership of Commissioner Dan Jørgensen, who has delivered a powerful message to the opening WUF13 Dialogue session, is all about how we can help EU countries and cities to help tackle the housing crisis by adding EU value. We have now adopted the first-ever European Affordable Housing Plan last December which aims to help scale up the supply of affordable housing, mobilise financing, enable the necessary reforms and help the most vulnerable people particularly the young, and never forgetting the unacceptable scourge of growing numbers of homeless people," noted the head of the Housing Task Force.
Speaking about EU's efforts to balance affordability, sustainability, and energy efficiency in housing policy, Baldwin pointed out that it’s not such a difficult balance to strike.
"Energy efficiency is a core affordability measure. Renovating the worst-performing buildings reduces energy bills and improves health and comfort, which supports affordability. By mobilising funding and protecting vulnerable households we can leverage and blend finance so that renovation and new construction are investable for providers and affordable for residents. The goal is to avoid a transition where costs fall unfairly on those least able to pay. Through the European Housing Alliance, we will help establish and disseminate best practices which can cut emissions from buildings and improve their resilience while keeping costs under control. But we must always remember that as for all housing policies, sustainability and affordability must be delivered in a way that makes sense locally," he explained.
Baldwin went on to add that there is massive diversity within Europe, and obviously even greater diversity at the global level.
"So we are certainly not arguing that what works in Europe will necessarily work everywhere. But here are some ideas that may have general application. All actors need to work together on housing challenges specific to their local context. We learned that there is no one-fits-all solution, but cooperation can help to find examples that may help locally. Sharing good practices and helping each other is therefore paramount. This is why we have recently launched the European Housing Alliance that support these objectives to enable cooperation between Member States, cities, regions, other EU institutions and stakeholders. At EU-level, we are at the beginning of this journey, the implementation of the many actions identified by the European Affordable Housing Plan to support local housing provision has begun and I strongly believe that events like WUF13 help us all get our new ideas out there. Europe’s housing crisis is heavily an urban one, so I hope there are some lessons from our experiences for rapidly urbanising regions globally, too," noted the head of the Housing Task Force.
Baldwin said it is clear that substantially increasing the supply of affordable housing will require a strong role for the private sector.
"Public sector involvement remains essential, particularly for the most vulnerable segments of the population, including those unable to afford to pay the rent and at risk of homelessness. In these cases, at the lower end of the housing spectrum, attracting private investment is particularly challenging. But we can do more to leverage patient, responsible capital. And we have to, because all the public investment in the world will never be enough. There are growing numbers of teachers, nurses, firemen and police officers who are in steady jobs, but cannot meet their needs in the market – but in this new segment, public support can be focused on leveraging private investment. Accordingly, the role of public intervention may shift away from reliance on capital-intensive grants towards a broader set of financial instruments, including guarantees and subsidised loans. In any case, all of us need to think through simplified procedures, and regulatory flexibility. We need to make it easier to supply affordable housing," he explained.
Baldwin pointed out that international cooperation is going to be very important in finding the right answers to the housing challenges confronting this global housing crisis.
"We have been mainly thinking about how to address the crisis in Europe, but every once in a while it is great to get out and understand the many aspects of the housing crisis in different countries like Azerbaijan, so it is a great opportunity to learn from our wonderful hosts as well. It is such a pleasure to be in beautiful Baku where the welcome has been very warm and friendly," he concluded.
