Minister wants more power to tackle Dutch housing shortage

Caretaker Minister for Housing and Spatial Planning Hugo de Jonge wants to take more power with his bill on control of public housing. If the bill passes, the minister will gain more control to help against the housing shortage and the lack of building locations. He is cutting the appeal procedures against licensing for building plans, according to the proposal sent on Thursday to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch Parliament.

De Jonge believes the bill will help the national, provincial and municipal governments speed up construction, and better manage the number of homes that have yet to be built. The Strengthening Regional Public Housing bill will also help administrators determine the best locations where for their future housing projects, and the groups of people who should be targetted with new housing developments.

The national government, provinces, and municipalities will be required to make a public housing program which contains the amounts, the target groups, and the building locations. Provinces and municipalities will be responsible for an adequate amount of building locations. the minister will point out locations if they cannot agree on them.

Housing associations and municipalities need to make clear agreements about the building of 250,000 social housing units and 50,000 homes for people with mid-level incomes up to 2030. It must be recorded where and when those homes will be built. If this process goes awry, the minister can make a binding decision so that construction can continue.

All municipalities are required to have an emergency arrangement. Currently it is only the larger municipalities that have a priority arrangement for people who need a home urgently.

if all municipalities help urgent home seekers, they will have a better chance of finding a suitable home and regular home seekers will also have a good chance of finding a home, according to de Jonge.

De Jonge is also ending lengthy appeal procedures which are causing delays in construction projects. Licensing decisions may only be appealed once under with the new bill as opposed to twice. The minister says that this could save a year in time.

The administrative court has to make a decision within six months on projects that have an objection with the new bill. These projects will be designated by the cabinet because "accelerated implementation is necessary due to intense social concerns”, he writes to the Tweede Kamer.

Both the Tweede Kamer and the Eerste Kamer, the upper house of Parliament, will need to vote on the proposal. De Jonge has the ambitious goal of seeing the law take effect on July 1.