The Catalan government and the city council are to set up the Badalona South Consortium in order to prevent the neighbourhoods of Artigues, Sant Roc, El Remei and El Congrés, in the south of the city, from becoming a pocket of poverty.

The Badalona South Consortium will be required to develop an integral rehabilitation plan to be applied over 10 to 12 years. The Consortium is scheduled to be up and running during 2006. The gradual deterioration of these neighbourhoods in recent years has made them a magnet for the most underprivileged immigrant population. Peaceful coexistence is under duress, and overcrowding of housing, irregular shop premises, truancy and crime are on the increase. These neighbourhoods figure among those with the highest immigration rate in the city, around 25%.

The application of this integral plan is intended to avoid the social breakdown of these groups and improve their vocational training, with a view to their full integration into society.

The basic aim is to tackle the integral rehabilitation of these neighbourhoods, some areas of which are currently undergoing an accelerated process of deterioration and growing social difficulties following the large-scale incorporation of non-EU immigrants over the last three years. As a result of this influx of people with widely diverse cultures and meagre economic resources, the southern part of Badalona has drifted towards a situation that requires a strong intervention from the public sector to change the present negative trends.

In order to take an all-encompassing approach to such a complex issue, the plans include the application of new strategies of social intervention and innovation, the development of multiple networking projects, the implementation of participatory and community work methods, a new facilities plan and the adoption of new strategies for crime prevention and peaceful coexistence. One of the basic elements of the project will be the programming, funding and execution of an extensive urban regeneration of the area, with the renovation of up to 900 flats with structural pathologies and the refurbishment of 2,000 more.