Cantabria opens 200,000 euro grants to census municipal asbestos

The Government of Cantabria has opened the call for grants intended for city councils to develop their census of facilities and sites containing asbestos and the schedule for their removal. The measure is formalized in Order FOM/12/2026, dated October 6, published in the Official Gazette of Cantabria (BOC no. 197, of October 14, 2026) with the reference CVE-2026-7964. Local entities have 20 calendar days to request up to 5,000 euros each.

The regulation, signed by the Councilor for Development, Housing, Territorial Planning, and Environment, Roberto Media Sainz, establishes the regulatory bases and approves the call under a competitive bidding process. Its objective is to comply with the fourteenth additional provision of Law 7/2022, of April 8, on waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy, which requires each city council to have a public census of facilities with asbestos accompanied by a removal calendar.

The text recalls that such removal must prioritize sites according to their degree of danger and the exposure of the most vulnerable population, and that public facilities with the highest risk must be managed before 2028. The census and the calendar will be sent to the competent health, environmental, and labor authorities for inspection purposes.

Financing and amounts

The call has a credit of 200,000 euros charged to budget item 04.03.456B.463. The grant may cover up to 100% of the eligible expenses assumed by the beneficiary entity, with a maximum of 5,000 euros per local entity.

If the sum of the admitted requests is lower than the available credit, the surplus will be distributed among the accepted requests, provided that the aid does not exceed the cost of the project in any case. The grants are compatible with other subsidies or income for the same purpose, as long as the total does not exceed the cost of the action.

Deadlines and processing

The summary of the call is published in the same issue of the gazette with the reference CVE-2026-7963 and the identifier BDNS 934039. From that point, the following deadlines are activated:

• Applications: 20 calendar days from the day following the publication of the summary, that is, from October 15 to November 3, 2026.
• Submission: General Electronic Registry of the Administration of the Autonomous Community of Cantabria, via the electronic office.
• Limit: each municipality may only submit one application per call.
• Resolution: maximum period of three months from the publication of the summary; administrative silence implies rejection.
• Execution: projects may have started from April 10, 2022, and must be completed before March 31, 2027.
• Justification: before June 30, 2027, electronically.

Destination of funds and competent bodies

All expenses necessary to prepare the census of installations and sites containing asbestos, whether publicly or privately owned, and the removal schedule, following the guidelines of the National Institute for Safety and Health at Work (INSST), the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, and the Ministry of Health, shall be eligible for subsidies.

Local entities in Cantabria that do not fall under the prohibitions of Law 10/2006, of July 17, on Subsidies of Cantabria, may be beneficiaries. The entity may subcontract up to 100% of the action.

The instructing body is the General Directorate of Environment and Climate Change, located at calle Lealtad 24 in Santander, while the resolution corresponds to the head of the Department competent in environmental matters. No evaluation criteria are set: the only element of priority is the chronological order of submission of the applications.

The order entered into force the day following its publication in the Official Gazette of Cantabria.

The call transfers to the Cantabrian municipalities the cost of a legal obligation that many have not yet fulfilled and sets a tight schedule: census and schedule ready before April 2027 and justified in June of that year. With a maximum of 5,000 euros per city council, the margin for contracting technical inventory work is limited, but the aid allows local entities to catch up before the 2028 deadline for higher-risk public installations.

Source: Official Gazette of Cantabria, no. 197, of October 14, 2026, Department of Development, Housing, Territorial Planning and Environment, pp. 52727-52738 (official reference: CVE-2026-7964).