Home » Business » Future Housing Plans and Challenges in the Assen-Groningen Region: Opinions from Drenthe

Future Housing Plans and Challenges in the Assen-Groningen Region: Opinions from Drenthe

If it were up to outgoing Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Housing), the area between Assen and Groningen would change drastically after 2030. In total, he wants to build an additional one million homes across the country after that year. One of the designated locations for part of this is the area between Assen and Groningen, with an extension to Emmen.

981,000 houses must also be built before 2030. But according to the minister, that is not enough, he writes in a letter to the House of Representatives. His expectation is that approximately the same number will need to be added in the next ten years. He has designated five areas for those extra houses, mainly in ‘the region’, not in the Randstad.

Good news for the home seeker? Opinions are divided in Drenthe.

“Very surprising, but welcome,” responds deputy Yvonne Turenhout (PvdA). There was no response from the cabinet at the time to the Delta Plan for the North with 220,000 additional homes in exchange for the Lely Line, the Lower Saxony Line and improvements to the existing track to the north. And the report ‘Every Region Counts’, which showed that governments are systematically investing much more in the Randstad, received a lukewarm government response.

Yet those reports on the importance of investing in the region now appear to be “the founder of the new policy that the government is developing,” says Turenhout. “We are very happy with this and would like to discuss it.”

However, she believes that there must be preconditions to facilitate the construction of all those homes. “You cannot get there with housing alone. People must also be able to recreate in the area. They must be able to work there and public transport must be well organised. It is about the total picture of a liveable province,” says Turenhout, who is especially keen to wants to sit down with the minister to discuss the details and conditions.

Drenthe municipalities are not immediately eager to build additional homes on a large scale. In Tynaarlo, the next seven years will focus on the needs of the municipality. “The need is approximately nine hundred to a thousand homes. That is what we are now building for,” says Jurryt Vellinga (Liveable Tynaarlo), councilor of the municipality of Tynaarlo.

Tynaarlo also believes that additional new construction is only feasible if the government also focuses more on the quality of life in the villages. “If we give a boost to infrastructure, public transport, social facilities and employment, there will also be a greater need for housing. People must have a reason to want to live here. Then we will also add more housing. But not too much,” warns Vellinga, who does not want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs: the beautiful surroundings, nature and relative peace.

A station in Tynaarlo could be an incentive to do more. It has been a wish that has been cherished for years to have a stop on the Assen-Groningen railway line. “That would be a very nice boost for our infrastructure and for the accessibility of our municipality. Then you will see that there will be more demand for homes, more than those thousand.”

In addition to the Assen – Zwolle region, De Jonge is also looking at large-scale housing construction ‘further Drenthe towards Emmen’ in the much longer term.

In addition, Vellinga believes that the government should provide extra money to facilitate more affordable housing, because affordable housing “costs the municipality a lot of money”, says Vellinga. “It would be great if we were also encouraged by the government to build more affordable housing,” Vellinga says. His Noordenveld colleague Jos Darwinkel agrees: “Municipalities cannot afford that unprofitable top, the government should do that. With current construction prices it is almost impossible to have social housing built.”

But if the government meets these requirements one by one, the question remains whether many homes can be added. “Perhaps we could build an additional five hundred to eight hundred homes, but then we really have to look carefully where in this municipality,” concludes Vellinga, who still sees places in Zuidlaren and Vries and very limited in the small centers.

Additional housing construction is excluded in Noordenveld, says councilor Jos Darwinkel (Municipal Interests). “We have agreed on an ambition with the municipal council. We have made agreements with Hugo de Jonge, the twelve Drenthe municipalities and the province for housing construction. That is for the next ten years. We want to stick to that and realize it first. “

Additional housing is also not realistic in the current market, says Darwinkel. “We first have our hands full with the agreements we have now made.” Darwinkel is referring to the great effort it takes to find and then realize housing construction sites. We are working on Roden-Zuid (250 homes), Maatlanden/De Zulthe (100) and Peize-Zuid (150). This takes many years because they are difficult processes.”

If the government is going to push through, then, according to Darwinkel, there must be a deal that will benefit the north. “Employment, Lely line, Lower Saxony line, then you have to provide butter and oil and that is not yet the case at all.”

2023-10-17 17:52:13
#plan #thousands #additional #homes #Assen #Groningen #received #province #municipality #Noordenveld

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.