News item | 26-09-2025 | 15:45
The space in the Netherlands is a given and we stand for large and urgent tasks that all appeal to this. These tasks, in the field of housing, accessibility, energy, defense, economy, agriculture and nature, are also not independent of each other. This requires related and integral choices. The government takes control of this so that we can also live in a pleasant country in the future. That is why, on the proposal of Minister Keijzer of Housing and Spatial Planning, the Cabinet has sent the Draft Room to the House of Representatives, containing national spatial choices and directions for the Netherlands for the period up to 2050 and with a glimpse to 2100.
Minister Keijzer: “As a country, we stand for huge tasks that ask for national direction and choices. Housing, accessibility, energy, defense, economy, water, soil, agriculture and nature all need space. But the space is scarce and we can only distribute well once. That is why we now have to make choices about our living environment in the future. The cabinet has not been recognizable in the past period, but that that has been the Netherlands that has been in the past period, but that that has been the Netherlands that that has been the same period, but that we do not want to have the Netherlands, but that we do not want that in the past period. The old one can not stand still.
National choices about the design of the Netherlands require coherence. That is why we connect topics that are most involved with each other. We distinguish 4 major themes: living, working and accessibility, economy and energy, agriculture and nature, and water and soil.
Vista for living, working and accessibility
Each region has its own characteristics, tasks and ambitions and therefore the government wants to work together with provinces, regions and municipalities on 5 distinctive development strategies for living, working and accessibility: strengthening, initiating, stimulating, transforming and accommodating (Vista).
We choose to reinforce in areas that, standing in itself, grow less rapidly. Here we focus on the development of housing and working, appropriate to the size and scale of the region, while maintaining and developing facilities. This applies, for example, to Zeeland and Friesland. We want to initiate a scale jump in specific Groningen axes, Twente and South Limburg. The large cities, companies, universities and knowledge institutions present offer opportunities for a scale in economic growth. In areas where the population does increase, but the economy can use a boost, we opt for stimulating. In regions such as Zwolle and Arnhem-Nijmegen we therefore focus on growth of employment. Special attention is paid to the Rotterdam-Den Haag region, where transforming is the strategy. Here are major change tasks in the existing urban area and in the landscape. We want to make this region future -proof so that it can participate in the European top again. In the most dynamic metropolitan regions, such as Amsterdam and Eindhoven, with a strong growth of economy and population, we speak of accommodation. These regions remain engines of the Dutch economy, but in balance with the quality of the living environment. For this, facilities and infrastructure must grow and a bet on affordable homes is required.
New, easily accessible housing locations
The housing shortage is high and we want to solve this. That is why we designate 4 new national and 127 regional large -scale housing locations. In addition, we stimulate the development of small -scale and medium -sized housing locations (including ‘Street there’ and ‘street in it’) in areas with a more limited housing requirement, in addition to the existing stock. A neighborhood throughout the Netherlands (up to 100 homes) can also be realized in line with an existing core, appropriate to the spatial context. The large -scale locations are located in and close by an existing urban area and are well accessible by car and public transport. Within regions, urban junctions of road and rail places where living, working and facilities concentrate are concentrating. For example, we use existing infrastructure and we can efficiently expand it with new large -scale infrastructure.
Strengthen regional economy and expand energy infrastructure
To strengthen the investment climate, it is necessary to handle room for economics with care and we must retain vital activity on business parks. The course we use is to make maximum use of, protect the scarce space for economic functions, to extend it strategically and to compensate where necessary. The weighting and expanding of the energy infrastructure is an important precondition for other developments and therefore has priority. The energy-intensive clusters, such as the port of Rotterdam and Chemelot, we explicitly designate as ‘of national importance’ in the design memorandum space because they are essential for our economic development and for the energy and raw disasters. With parties from these clusters we will work on a long -term strategy. In the coming period, the government also wants to work with regions to strengthen the regional economy and further develop the energy system. In addition to the space on land, the limited space in the North Sea has also been weighed in order to ensure more wind energy, shipping and cables for energy and data, in good balance with nature and fishing. Of course, a strong Netherlands also requires room for defense. Space is needed to be able to train and practice and for the accommodation of staff and stables of equipment. We want to actively use the opportunities for strengthening the regional economy or nature.
Future -proof agriculture and robust nature
Dutch agriculture is indispensable for food security, the quality of life in the rural area and the maintenance of our valuable cultural landscapes. That is why we choose to handle agricultural land with care. There will be an assessment framework for extracting agricultural land, where (co) governments first look at the possibilities to combine functions or the possibility of making land with other functions available.
In addition, a robust and resilient nature is the basis for a healthy and safe living environment and drinking water supply. We meet international agreements for robust nature and combine this as much as possible with other tasks. The tasks for agriculture and nature differ per region, depending on local circumstances. This does not alter the fact that farmers, gardeners and nature managers, due to climate change, should take more account of the water and soil system and adjust the land use accordingly.
There are a number of areas where many tasks come together and the issues are extra complex and urgent. In areas around nature areas where tasks such as improving water quality and the reduction of nitrogen come together, we ensure a balance between these tasks and the current (often agricultural) functions. In this way we focus on combination of functions, such as agricultural nature management and agriculture.
Dealing with water future -proof
The Netherlands has been living with water for centuries and we will continue to do that. Low-Nederland also remains safe habitable in the long term. But for water safety and freshwater supply we will have to make our water and soil system future-proof. That is why we reserve space around the large rivers and the large waters, so that we can increase dikes and retain and possibly increase the freshwater supply in the IJsselmeer. In addition, regions are given more responsibility for their own freshwater supply by retaining, storing and saving more water. To prepare our locally better for more extreme weather, we make more room for greenery and water collection.
Follow -up process
The design note space is made available for inspection so that everyone can respond to it, after which the final bill is determined. The final note Space is a national environmental vision binding for the government – under the Environment Act.