Mountains of paperwork and too few civil servants hindering housing construction
New housing construction plans are being hampered by a shortage of municipal officials who can issue permits. Mountains of applications are piling up at Spatial Planning and Land Affairs departments with too few civil servants to process, let alone approve them, the Telegraaf reported.
Ermelo has even had to temporarily halt new plans for private housing construction because the backlog is becoming too big. The municipality won’t accept any new plans until March 2025. “The applications end up on the pile here and are not even looked at,” city councilor Gert Jan Brouwer (VVD) told the newspaper. “Construction has come to a standstill and that is precisely what we want to prevent because the demand for housing is also high here.”
The Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) acknowledged that staff shortages are hampering housing construction plans, but couldn’t say how many municipalities are struggling with it.
A recent study by A&O Fonds Gemeenten showed that the majority of municipalities have open vacancies for civil servants, particularly in the areas of spatial planning, environment, construction, and civil engineering. “The number of vacancies in the field of spatial planning/environment and construction/civil engineering increased by 24 and 18 percent respectively in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2023. This continues a trend that has already started,” Patricia Honcoop of the research agency said.
Bouwend Nederland, the industry organization for the construction sector, called it ironic that municipalities can’t issue construction permits while the housing shortage stands at over 400,000 homes. “For home seekers, it is unacceptable that waiting times are so long,” spokesperson Daphne Warnar told the newspaper. “A permit must be issued for every new house, so without permits, we will not solve the housing shortage. As far as Bouwend Nederland is concerned, enforceable agreements will be made at Minister Keijzer's Housing Summit on sufficient permits for 100,000 new homes in 2025."
Erik Verhof of Veluwe Architecten is at his wit's end. “It’s a complete disaster,” he told the newspaper. “Fifteen of our projects have been halted because no permits are being issued. That means that dozens of homes won’t be built. It is not known when they will be built, and that is, of course, terribly annoying for us and our clients. In the meantime, we as a company have to figure out how to keep our heads above water.”
