If the national government and the province do not come up with solutions for the nitrogen crisis, eighty to ninety percent of the housing plans in Woensdrecht cannot go ahead. This is stated in a report on the housing construction challenge in Brabant. The municipality must build seven hundred homes by 2030. Construction plans have been determined for only 36 homes over the next three years.
It has been difficult for years to grant permits for construction projects that cause nitrogen emissions. This is because too much nitrogen ends up in vulnerable nature, causing things to deteriorate in those areas. To restore nature, nitrogen emissions must be drastically reduced.
Nitrogen largely comes from livestock farming, but there are also emissions from the construction of houses. Moreover, emissions are also generated once a project is in use, for example due to traffic. The latter is mainly the problem according to the municipality of Woensdrecht.
Four nature reserves
“We are looking at all kinds of solutions, but if use cannot reach zero emissions, the municipality cannot grant a planning permit,” says Woensdrecht. The problem affects the entire province, but is particularly noticeable in Woensdrecht. The municipality is surrounded by four vulnerable nature reserves.
Nitrogen (just like the overcrowded power grid, money, the number of civil servants and objection procedures) plays a hindering role in housing construction. All four housing regions in Brabant recently donated in reports indicates that these problems must be solved in order to fulfill the agreements on housing construction.
Statement of 13,500 new houses per year
The municipality of Woensdrecht emphasizes that message. “Both the national government and the province must come up with a perspective on the nitrogen dossier for farmers, businesses and housing.”
Between 2023 and 2035, 165,000 new houses must be built in Brabant. That amounts to 13,500 houses per year. That number has not been reached for years.
