Tens of thousands of Groningen residents are queuing physically or online on Monday to apply for a subsidy of 10,000 euros per household. A total of 220 million euros is available, intended for the improvement of homes in the earthquake zone. This budget is expected to be insufficient to grant all applications.
The Northern Netherlands Partnership (SNN), responsible for processing the subsidy applications, already predicted a stampede on Sunday and was proved right. The online application window opened on Monday morning at 09:00 and quickly reached a peak of more than 50,000 people waiting, says SNN director Marjan Dol. NRC. In addition, in several places people sometimes physically queue for hours at the town hall to submit an application. According to Dol, about 48,000 households were still in an online or physical queue at 2.30 pm, while a quarter of the available budget had already been allocated. It is therefore “theoretically possible” that the available budget will be exhausted in the course of Tuesday morning, according to Dol.
It is the second and final round of applications for the subsidy scheme, which came about after consultation between the previous cabinet and the province. The first nearly 80 million euros of a total of around 300 million euros became available in July last year. Even then this led to great interest among Groningen residents living in the earthquake area. It Daily newspaper of the North reported at the time that the budget was exhausted within five days. Residents may use the money for overdue maintenance on their home, or to make it more sustainable or to renovate it.
230 million euros extra needed
Because approximately 53,000 households in the earthquake zone are eligible for the subsidy, it appears that some 23,000 applications cannot be granted with the current budget. The new cabinet would have to make an additional EUR 230 million available to make this possible. However, the Interior Ministry has said so far that the amount will not be increased. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, which includes the earthquake portfolio of the new cabinet, was unable to say on Monday afternoon whether this decision will be reconsidered.
Adriaan Hoogendoorn, mayor of the municipality of Midden-Groningen, called the subsidy scheme “a real state lottery” on Monday. On Twitter he posted pictures of the queue of people waiting at the municipal counter in Hoogezand and criticized the distribution principle “first come, first served”. He also wrote that he hoped that the new State Secretary for the earthquake file Hans Vijlbrief (D66) ‘will quickly rectify this’. Other Groningen residents express their dissatisfaction by sharing their place on the online waiting list on social media, or call for the proceeds of the extra gas extraction announced last week to be given entirely to Groningen.
#Long #queues #subsidy #Groningen #earthquake #area