A small country with a rapidly growing population, a shortage of houses and a scarcity of space cannot do without central control in housing construction.
Hugo de Jonge rushed forward with some skepticism when he exchanged his corona post for Public Housing. If only that didn’t turn into a series of press conferences full of intentions, promises and action plans – which, on closer inspection, would be less easy to realize than the minister wished.
He is not yet able to break that pattern completely. His vision on the housing crisis, presented on Friday, is full of ‘programmes’, ‘regional housing deals’ and ‘provincial targets’. There will be a lot of talk in the coming months and a lot of details we have to wait for. Taking into account that the previous cabinet had also been struggling with the housing crisis for some time, this is not reassuring.
What is hopeful is the fundamental turn that De Jonge is now deploying compared to the previous cabinets. If a Prime Minister stays in office long enough, it may therefore happen that under his rule the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning is first abolished, based on the conviction that the national government should not interfere too much in such matters, after which it reappears a decade later. honor is restored from the opposite belief. ‘Housing is a fundamental right’, De Jonge now writes to the House of Representatives. ‘A core task of the government. In recent years we have made the role of the national government too small for this fundamental right.’
In doing so, Rutte IV embraces the analysis that had already been made by many outside the Trêveszaal: in a small country with a rapidly growing population, a shortage of housing and scarcity of space, a director is needed. One that not only ensures that enough is built, but also in the right places for the right target groups. With a view to the near and somewhat more distant future, moreover.
De Jonge’s objectives are clear (900,000 new homes in eight years), and it is also clear what kind of homes are needed and where they should be built. The basic principle is still that provinces, municipalities and housing associations take matters into their own hands. But De Jonge has already put forward financial consequences, ‘legal interventions’ and ‘administrative escalation’ as a big stick if things don’t get done enough.
Now to overcome the skepticism that it is again just too many words.
The position of the newspaper is expressed in the Volkskrant Commentaar. It is created after a discussion between the commentators and the editor-in-chief.