More financial space in the short and long term | News item

News item | 20-09-2022 | 15:15

More financial scope for municipalities and provinces

Minister Bruins Slot (Internal Affairs and Kingdom Relations) and State Secretary Van Rij (Finance) are making an extra €1 billion available for municipalities and €100 million for provinces in 2026. This is in the run-up to a new financing system for municipalities. These resources are freely disposable: it is up to the municipalities and provinces how they want to use them. With these extra resources, the central government wants to support the municipalities and provinces in the important role they play towards their residents.

All Parliamentary papers from Prinsjesdag with decision notes

From Budget Day, when all documents are sent to parliament, the underlying departmental memorandums (decision memorandums) are also sent. A decision memorandum contains background information that ministers use when deciding on a parliamentary document. By sending decision memorandums with parliamentary documents, the cabinet contributes to enabling parliament to properly perform its monitoring and co-legislative tasks. The publication of the decision notes has been introduced in phases. Since 1 July 2021, Parliamentary documents relating to policy and legislation have already been made public. From 20 September 2022, the decision memorandums of all Parliamentary papers will be made public.

Rent and housing allowance

From July 2023, tenants with a low income in a housing association will receive a rent reduction of an average of € 57 per month. This rent reduction was previously planned for 2024, but has been brought forward by one year by Minister De Jonge (Public Housing and Spatial Planning). Approximately 510,000 households are eligible for the rent reduction.
By combining this with a higher housing benefit, the housing costs for the group of tenants with a low income are cushioned even further. Due to a lower personal contribution, people will receive an additional monthly rent allowance of € 16.94 from January 2023. In addition, the effect of the increased statutory minimum wage will lead to a further increase in the housing benefit for some of the recipients.

Insulation homes

Proper insulation of homes can save a lot of energy. With the acceleration of the National Insulation Programme, a total of €300 million will be made available for this in 2023 and 2024. Municipalities can use this money to support residents, for example through a street-by-street approach to poorly insulated homes. The budgets for insulation subsidies will also be increased. These additional resources are in addition to the €4 billion available for the National Insulation Program up to 2030.

Kingdom Relations

The cabinet sees that the rising prices in the Caribbean Netherlands are hitting people extra hard. State Secretary Van Huffelen (Kingdom Relations and Digitization) and Minister Schouten (Poverty Policy) are therefore allocating an additional one-off €16 million in 2023 and €2.4 million annually to improve purchasing power on Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba. A package is also being developed for the Caribbean Netherlands to mitigate the consequences of rising energy prices.

Digitization

The government is working on a digital agenda in which public values ​​play a central role. What is the norm offline should also apply online. And everyone should be able to participate. That is why the more than two million people who are less digitally skilled receive help from the government. In addition, the government is working on a digital identity, algorithms are being regulated and efforts are being made to combat disinformation and online discrimination. Strong European laws and regulations, such as the AI ​​Act, the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act will also play an important role in this.