Dutch municipalities hoping for stability, funding from next Cabinet

Municipalities are asking the next government for sufficient funding to carry out their duties. They also want clear rules after the elections, a stable political climate, the confidence to devise their own solutions, and improved accessibility. Furthermore, they hope for a solution to the nitrogen crisis.

ANP surveyed over 200 municipalities and received responses in recent days. Approximately 100 municipalities requested more funding. Culemborg, for example, wants “sufficient resources to be made available for the tasks entrusted to municipalities. If responsibility is assigned to us, it must also be matched by an appropriate budget.”

Heerenveen agrees: “If the national government decentralizes issues like healthcare, asylum seeker reception, and participation without financial compensations, municipal policy will stall and municipal budgets will go into the red.”

The Limburg municipality of Bergen wants the next government to realize “that the capacity of small municipalities is limited.”

Municipalities are responsible for youth care, among other things. Children have to wait too long for help, inspectors said last month. According ot the municipalities, they need funding for this. Otherwise, “the quality and continuity of youth care will be seriously compromised,” the municipality of Dijk en Waard said.

Over 60 municipalities asked for clear policy. “Municipalities have been waiting for clarity for a long time. We especially need sound and reliable governance that ensures sound policy,” said Dinkelland in Twente.

Ede complained that plans and regulations sometimes contradict each other. Gulpen-Wittem said that “erratic policy and short-term thinking do not help us implement policy locally.”

For municipalities, this clarity coincides with trust. For Twenterand, trust means “less regulation and more room for individual choices, so we can respond to what is really happening here.” Arnhem said: “We know what works in our city.”