Lleida’s mayor, Fèlix Larrosa, on Tuesday presented to the Bon Govern (Good Governance) briefing committee a draft of the 2027 tax bylaws that freezes municipal fees and taxes, according to a statement from the Paeria, Lleida City Council. The rise in the consumer price index (IPC) will not be passed on to bills. The council will also refund 580,000 euros of this year’s waste collection fee, because of the delay in the start of the new cleaning and collection contract. The text will be put to a vote at an extraordinary plenary session on 20 October, and the municipal government has not yet secured the support of any group, according to La Mañana.

We are not raising any fee or any tax; we are choosing not to pass this pressure on to residents, said deputy mayor for Good Governance Carme Valls, according to the council statement.

What changes on the bill

The proposal applies no increase linked to the IPC, according to the Paeria. Larrosa explained that the council will absorb that pressure internally to avoid passing it on to families and businesses, as reported by La Mañana and La Ciutat.

The mayor justified the freeze by the council’s financial solidity, according to La Mañana. He attributed that position to higher revenue from the State and to what he called the dynamism of local economic activity. With that margin, according to Larrosa, the council keeps the revenue it needs to sustain basic public services, city maintenance and security without raising the direct tax burden, according to the same paper.

When the Paeria’s financial situation allows it, resources must be managed so as to take decisions that favour families, young people, older people and economic activity, Larrosa said, according to the council statement. The Paeria maintains that the council’s economic position allows it to reduce the tax burden while keeping its capacity to invest.

The contrast with last year lies in SEGRE’s figures. In the 2026 bylaws, approved on 17 October 2025, the government froze the business activity tax (IAE), blue-zone parking and the Plaça Sant Joan car park, cut the property tax (IBI) by 2% and raised the remaining fees by 2.75% based on the IPC, as Valls explained at the time in the plenary, according to that paper.

Valls recalled on Tuesday that the IBI has been cut by 4% during the current term, according to the Paeria statement. The deputy mayor defended bylaws that are more social, greener, more focused on housing and with a lower tax burden on residents.

The housing rebates

The bulk of the changes concern housing. We use taxation to respond to the city’s priorities, and the first priority is clear: housing, Larrosa said, according to the council statement.

In the IBI, the 50% rebate for officially protected housing is extended from 5 to 6 years, counted from the final classification, according to the Paeria. The 95% rebate introduced this year for affordable homes built on plots whose surface rights are granted by the council or its linked bodies is also extended from 5 to 6 years.

Temporary accommodation for seasonal workers, such as those of the fruit-picking campaign, had a 70% IBI rebate. The proposal raises it to 95%, according to the council statement.

In the tax on construction, installations and works (ICIO), the 75% rebate for renovating homes that owners hand over to the municipal housing pools (Borsa Jove and Borsa Social) is extended to the whole city. Until now it only applied in the historic centre, according to the Paeria. The pools are run by the Local Housing Office.

Building special-regime homes for rent for at least five years will carry a 95% ICIO rebate, up from the current 90%. The same rise, from 90% to 95%, applies to works on residences for people at risk of social exclusion or with disabilities and on buildings for seasonal workers. According to Valls, that is the maximum allowed by current legislation, the statement says.

In the historic centre, the ICIO rebate for renovations rises from 75% to 95%, with the stated aim of recovering homes, heritage and economic activity in the district, according to the Paeria.

In the municipal capital gains tax on urban land (plusvàlua), the rebate for properties joining the social rental mediation programme for at least four years rises from 80% to 95%, according to the council statement.

The appeal to owners

Larrosa asked owners of empty flats to place them in the municipal mediation system. He said the council acts as guarantor: it guarantees that rent is collected, returns the home as it was handed over and manages potential tenants through the pool, according to the Paeria statement.

The mayor framed the measures within a strategy that includes granting surface rights, buying buildings for urban regeneration processes and other initiatives to be presented soon, according to the same statement. The Paeria does not say which.

What is refunded from the waste fee

The new cleaning and waste collection contract was due to come into service on 1 May 2026. It started on 19 August, because of an appeal by one of the companies that bid in the tender, according to the Paeria. That delay reduced the cost of the service this year, and the council will refund 580,000 euros to residents and businesses on next year’s waste fee bill.

At the committee, Valls spoke of a surplus of between 580,000 and 600,000 euros, according to La Mañana and La Ciutat. The refund will appear as a specific line on the bill.

The money will be distributed proportionally, exactly as when the bylaws were drawn up, Valls explained, according to the council statement. The discount per home will range from 4.73 to 8.21 euros, depending on its size and on whether it has door-to-door collection. In the Horta, the farmland area around the city, the reduction will be 3.48 euros. Private garages and inactive premises will get a reduction of 4.41 euros, and undeveloped plots 8.03 euros. For businesses, the refund will range between 4.16 euros (4 euros and 16 cents) and 164.14 euros depending on the activity, and the owners’ association of the El Segre industrial estate will receive 5,629.68 euros under its agreement, again according to the Paeria.

The press figures do not fully match the statement. La Mañana and La Ciutat report 4.98 euros for homes under 110 square metres and a maximum of 34 euros for commercial categories; the council statement sets the minimum per home at 4.73 euros and the maximum for businesses at 164.14 euros.

The 2026 tariff gives a measure of the discount. For flats of up to 110 square metres, the fixed part of the fee was set at 83.28 euros and the variable part at 36.84 euros, according to NacióDigital in October 2025.

Who voted for what last year

Larrosa’s bylaws have passed in each of the last three years with Junts’ votes, according to La Mañana. At the extraordinary plenary of 17 October 2025, the PSC and Junts sealed the deal at an early-morning meeting. The Socialists accepted the 2% IBI cut Junts was demanding and a working group so that the variable part of the waste fee would be calculated from the population register rather than from the floor area of each home, according to SEGRE.

The PP, ERC and Vox voted against and the Comú abstained, according to that paper. All amendments were rejected except those of Junts.

Junts spokesperson Violant Cervera acknowledged at the time that the negotiations had not been easy and that there had been moments of tension. PP leader Xavi Palau said what worried residents was the rise in the waste fee and warned that unless more economic activity was generated, fees would keep rising in the coming years, according to SEGRE.

Vox spokesperson Gloria Rico called for cutting the IBI to the legal minimum, scrapping the plusvàlua and increasing recycling rebates. Valls replied that this would mean losing 30 million euros in revenue and the economic ruin of the council, according to SEGRE. Rico said she was not surprised that they had been excluded from the negotiations.

Larrosa closed that plenary with a phrase reported by SEGRE: no theatre and no nonsense, just negotiation and politics.

The tussle with ERC

The government’s proposal comes after ERC’s. On 7 October, the Republican group presented its demands as IBI and waste bills were arriving, according to La Mañana. ERC argues that the PSC–Junts agreements of the last three years have raised the tax burden on families, and it called for a change of course.

Several of its demands appear in the government’s text: the general freeze, the extension from 5 to 6 years of the IBI rebate for protected housing, the city-wide extension of the ICIO rebate for flats handed to the pool and compensation for the waste fee, according to La Mañana. ERC wanted a direct credit of between 5 and 10 euros per bill and to raise the rebates for the lowest incomes and pensions from 50% and 75% to 75% and 90%.

The measure missing from the council statement is the surcharge. ERC wants to apply a surcharge of up to 100% of the IBI, from the third home onwards, on owners who keep properties empty without justified cause. That was the main sticking point in the talks, according to La Mañana.

ERC spokesperson Jordina Freixanet said talks with the government showed willingness on some proposals, but she did not guarantee a vote in favour, according to NacióDigital and La Mañana.

Larrosa replied to ERC on Tuesday by asking what they had done in the previous term, when they ran the council’s economy department, to now demand measures they did not apply, according to La Mañana.

What is not on record

None of the sources cited quantifies how much revenue the Paeria forgoes by not applying the IPC or how much the new rebates cost. Nor is it on record how many flats are currently in the Borsa Jove and the Borsa Social, or how many officially protected homes receive the IBI rebate. The council statement does not mention the empty-flat surcharge ERC is seeking or the register-based calculation of the waste fee that Junts agreed a year ago. The position of Junts, the PP, Vox and the Comú on the 2027 text is not on record.

Larrosa has not announced support from any group and said he was optimistic, according to La Mañana, with a warning that in politics anything can happen until the last moment. The extraordinary plenary is on 20 October.

Sources and verification

Information based on the Paeria statement, 13 October 2026; La Mañana, 13 October 2026; La Ciutat, 13 October 2026; La Mañana, 7 October 2026; SEGRE, 17 October 2025, and NacióDigital, 7 October 2025. The text of the draft bylaws and the Good Governance committee file could not be consulted. The waste-fee refund figures differ between the council statement and the press; both are reported. Quotations originally in Catalan have been translated. The Paeria was not contacted before publication.