‘Out of office’, can be read on Hugo de Jonge’s white cycling socks. In a happy Instagram video the outgoing minister for Housing (CDA) cycles from his study to the lift, smiling broadly, where he looks back and gives a thumbs up. The message: I’m going on holiday carefree.
Members of the Senate think very differently about that. Last week, a quarrel arose between the senate and De Jonge about the introduction of part of the Environmental Act. Since De Jonge refused to implement a motion by, among others, Ferd Crone (PvdA-GroenLinks), senators have been considering follow-up questions and a possible debate after the recess.
At stake is the implementation date of the Building Quality Assurance Act (Wkb); as part of the Environment and Planning Act, this would take effect on 1 January 2024. A majority of the Senate voted last week for the motion to suspend the effective date.
De Jonge does not intend to implement that motion, he said in a letter on Monday. According to the minister, the Wkb is so intertwined with the Environment and Planning Act that it would not work properly if they did not enter into force at the same time.
Senator Crone, together with BBB colleague Eric Kemperman, had taken the initiative for the motion. It bothers him that De Jonge, as outgoing minister, ignores a motion from the Senate. “We can no longer send him away, because he is already outgoing. But that doesn’t make him any less responsible.”
Concerns about feasibility
It is not the first time that the Environment and Planning Act in particular has caused commotion in the Senate. The law bundles all legislation in the field of spatial planning and environmental permits. This should simplify matters regarding spatial planning, but the fear of legal inequality and problems with ICT during testing made the senate wary.
After five postponements, the Senate finally approved the introduction in March of this year, as of 1 January next.
The Wkb stipulates that supervision of construction quality will be the responsibility of market parties instead of municipalities. When building small offices and homes for which a permit is required, a ‘quality assurance officer’ must supervise the construction from next year – an external company that is hired by the person applying for the permit. It should ensure better construction quality, lower costs of failed construction projects and a stronger position for consumers in the construction industry.
But the Senate has concerns. For example, there are doubts about whether there are enough quality assurance officers to assess all construction projects. After all, without a guarantor, a construction project cannot start soon, which can cause further delays in housing construction. There are also concerns that the use of market parties will make construction even more expensive.
There are also legal concerns. For example, quality assurance officers must reject buildings if they do not fully meet the building standards. For example, if the ceiling of a bathroom is five centimeters too low, according to the Wkb, the building should be raised until it is just right – with all the associated costs. The municipality can still decide to tolerate it, but no policy has yet been made for this. More legal uncertainty, therefore, which raises the question of whether insurers are still willing to bear the risk of renovations, says Crone. “The minister has said that this will be worked on in October. That seems very short notice to me, because it is not clear whether they will be ready in October.”
In his explanatory letter, De Jonge argues that there will certainly be enough quality assurance officers, certainly as the demand for their services will increase – and that delay will in any case not lead to more quality assurance officers.
But De Jonge cannot ignore the criticism of the Senate. Certainly not now that the coalition has fewer seats than before since the elections a few months ago. And since the two largest opposition blocs, the BBB and the shared list of PvdA and GroenLinks, have joined forces.
Earlier, the two groups announced that they wanted to work together in the House of Representatives to demand wage increases and more money for poverty reduction.
Postponement Environmental Act?
But that is not the only problem for De Jonge. Because now that the effective date of the Wkb is under discussion, the implementation of the entire Environment and Planning Act is also coming under pressure.
Where Kajsa Ollongren (D66), De Jonge’s predecessor as minister on the housing dossier, was of the opinion that the Environment and Planning Act could also take effect without the Quality Assurance Act, according to De Jonge this is now a different story.
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According to De Jonge, the Wkb is already so ‘intertwined’ with the digital part of the Environment and Planning Act that problems arise in implementation if the laws do not enter into force at the same time. In a letter to the Senate on Friday, De Jonge describes the Environment Act as a “construction” from which “a stone cannot simply be removed”, not even temporarily. According to the minister, other rules are “figuratively suspended in the air” and are “not legible and therefore not feasible”.
If both the Senate and De Jonge stand their ground, another postponement of the Environment and Planning Act cannot be ruled out.
The Environment and Planning Act was supposed to come into effect in 2019, but that will now be 2024. In the meantime, municipalities and construction companies are waiting for the introduction of the Wkb, which has moved along with the several postponements of the Environment and Planning Act.
Bouwend Nederland has never been a fan of the Wkb. The trade association shares the concerns of the Senate about the number of available quality assurance officers and possible cost increases. But since the entry into force of the Environmental Act has been passed by parliament, the trade association has taken a pragmatic stance: if the law does come into effect, construction companies must know where they stand and what they need to prepare for. “The lack of clarity for our members is very annoying. They have been preparing for months for the introduction of the law, and what the introduction from 1 January will mean for them,” says lawyer Reina Uittenbogaard of Bouwend Nederland. Another postponement would extend that ambiguity.
An important addition is that, as far as Bouwend Nederland is concerned, the law should initially only apply to new construction and not also to renovations, so that construction companies have more time to get used to it. “We advocate a phased introduction of the law.” Municipalities want the law to immediately apply to both renovations and new construction – after all, exceptions mean extra rules.
Member of Parliament Crone says he is disappointed in De Jonge’s attitude. “He is now taking a big risk: this law can go wrong from January 1 because there is still a lot of legal uncertainty for consumers and the construction sector.”