The Flemish government reached an agreement on the nitrogen dossier last night. She also agreed on the construction shift. Flemish Prime Minister Jan Jambon (N-VA) confirms this.
Details about the content of the agreements are not yet known. “More explanation will follow later today,” Jambon said on Twitter. These are two tricky files that have been on the government table for a long time.
Construction shift
The construction shift – like the concrete stop today is called – must safeguard open space in Flanders. While our region is already a European frontrunner in land take, 5.1 hectares of open space are still taken daily for human use. The issue has been at the top of the political agenda for years, but has not yet been settled because a bill of billions is looming.
The Flemish majority parties Open Vld, CD&V and the N-VA made an agreement in 2020 to put local authorities at the helm of the construction shift. All residential expansion areas, land that municipalities can use in the event of a shortage of building land, were placed under a bell jar. Only the municipal council can decide whether to have that land cut or convert it into a nature and agricultural area, on which it is definitively impossible to build.
If that happens, the loss in value – settled at the full market value – must be paid from the municipal coffers. Because the government did not provide funding for this, experts feared that no land would be converted for 20 years. The bill would not be presented to the Flemish government until 2040.
Also read. Millions fund for concrete stop in the making
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