The municipality of Westerveld will not try to meet the national requirement to have 30 percent of the housing stock consist of social rental homes. The municipality considers the requirement unfeasible and wants to focus on the construction of a different category of housing, such as affordable owner-occupied homes.
The percentage of social rent in the four largest villages in the municipality (Havelte, Vledder, Diever and Dwingeloo) is between 18 and 23 percent. “To achieve the thirty percent in 2030, we have to realize all planning capacity as social housing from now on. The latter is not realistic for a rural municipality like Westerveld.”
In total, the municipality is aiming for 1000 additional homes by 2030. The new coalition parties agreed on this during the negotiations. A minimum of 750 homes has been established for this. “Housing corporation Actium has indicated that it will be able to build approximately 100 new social rental homes during this period. This would come down to a total of less than 10 percent of the homes to be built,” says the municipality.
Nevertheless, the Westerveld municipality is changing the accent in the plan for the new houses to be built. Initially, the municipality planned to focus more on two-hairdressers and detached houses in the coming years. Now the emphasis is on affordable rental and owner-occupied homes.
In addition to the four large villages, the municipality also designates a fifth potential construction site. 250 to 450 extra houses will be built here. This is probably about Dieverbrug. The Westerveld municipality has previously discussed major housing plans there and an investigation is underway.
With all the new plans announced, the total number of social rental homes in Southwest Drenthe seems to be approaching 30 percent social rent. Officially, it is still questionable whether there are enough staff at municipalities to implement the plans. In addition, the nitrogen regulations, tight finances of housing associations and the availability of building land can still cause obstacles.