Another 1 billion euros extra to boost housing construction | Inland

This is apparent from the budget of the Ministry of the Interior, which was presented to the House of Representatives on Budget Day. The investment should prevent the housing shortage from increasing further. The cabinet previously made 2 billion euros available for the Housing Construction Impulse, but Minister Ollongren (Internal Affairs) warned in the spring that the bottom of the pot was in sight. There was broad political support for solving this problem. That is why 1 billion extra is being made available.

The House of Representatives mainly focused on extra money to tackle the housing shortage. That has become a persistent problem. According to calculations, there is already a 331,000 homes shortage in the Netherlands and that shortage will only increase in the coming years, to no less than 419,000 homes in 2025.

The government has already tried to turn the tide. In 2019, 2 billion euros was already earmarked to boost housing construction, but it does not appear to be enough for the time being. In recent years, outgoing minister Ollongren (Internal Affairs) has concluded non-committal ‘housing deals’ that cannot prevent a huge deficit from remaining. The government’s aim is to build 75,000 more homes every year, but that is not enough.

The major issues are passed on to the formation table and the next cabinet. There is a huge shortage of housing. In politics The Hague is increasingly calling for a return of a Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) for more clout.

The cut is also made for sustainability. In the coming years, the government will invest more than 1.3 billion euros to ‘further accelerate the process of making buildings more sustainable’. 500 million euros is intended for insulation, 300 million for the purchase of heat pumps and 500 million to make buildings of, for example, the police, the judiciary, and also schools and hospitals more energy-efficient.

Extra money will also go to municipalities and provinces to maintain public facilities. Next year, 1.3 billion euros will be used to compensate for shortages in youth care. 6.5 million will be earmarked for elections in 2022, mainly to make municipal elections accessible. The secret service AIVD receives an additional 15 million on a structural basis, among other things to keep an eye on ‘undesirable foreign financing of Salafist instigators’.

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