“Housing”, say the Delft students Frank Schilperoort (23) and Rein Roeleveld (25). “One of the reasons I still live in my student house is that if I move I have to pay twice as much,” says Schilperoort. Studios are being built at the TU Delft campus, says Roeleveld, but you don’t have roommates there. “Corona has learned how important they are.”
“Living space”, say friends Erna Groot (53) from Afferden (Limburg) and Irma Kreuning (57) from Heerhugowaard (North Holland). Their husbands nod in agreement. Irma’s adult son rents in Bos en Lommer in Amsterdam for 1,600 euros per month. “He can’t get a mortgage,” says Erwin Kreuning (58). Robert Groot (54) tells about apartments that have been built in their village: “Yet again for old people.”
“Houses”, says the 59-year-old postman Toon from Delft. He prefers not to give his last name. After a long time on a waiting list, his one daughter “finally” has a place to live. The youngest rents privately. “She is always the sixth invited to view a house. Never the first.” Friend Sjoerd, a 59-year-old teacher from Midden-Delfland, says: „It is a weak bite. We have already built houses. The permits have been issued, there is nothing concrete yet.”
On a sunny Sunday afternoon on the Markt in Delft, ask what people expect from their municipality in the next four years and what they want a new council to achieve, and housing is often and quickly answered. Municipal elections are in a week.
The high expectations of residents about what their municipality can do – about housing construction, but also in other areas – can only be partially fulfilled. Due to a lack of money, national legislation and (mandatory) regional cooperation, the municipality has less and less room to make or implement plans itself, according to a big investigation from research bureau I&O Research and management consultancy Berenschot.
First government
Local administrators like to see their municipalities as ‘first government’, the government closest to the citizen. Municipalities are increasingly implementing government policy in many areas. Aldermen and councilors who have been around for a while warn the newcomers: temper voters’ expectations, because municipalities cannot meet them. The risk is that residents also lose their trust in the municipality.
Take living. It is the main election theme for 44 percent of voters – especially on the left, for young people and for people with low incomes – and for half of the inhabitants of the three major cities, the survey shows. The central government wants to build 100,000 homes per year and wants to make performance agreements with municipalities about this.
Voters highly rate the influence of their municipal council and council: 46 percent of the respondents who think that ‘affordable housing’ is the most important topic and 38 percent of those who do not think it is important, think that the municipality is fully or largely about this.
But a municipality can do something to a limited extent about the demand for housing: it can determine where new houses will be built and set requirements for project developers about the percentage of social rental housing. However, the project developers decide whether they see something in a construction project and who they are building for.
A municipality can change very little about the existing housing stock. In The Hague, Alderman for Housing Martijn Balster (PvdA) says: “The instruments we have are exhausted.” The Hague has now imposed restrictions on temporary holiday rentals (Airbnb), rules against splitting up homes, a mandatory housing permit and a self-occupancy obligation for homes up to EUR 355,000. A municipality cannot do anything about high rental or purchase prices, that is determined by the market. Balster’s wish is that the government should give municipalities the opportunity to curb high private rents.
The measures taken by The Hague are primarily intended to improve the quality of life in neighbourhoods. ‘Small, close-by’ quality of life is what municipalities are fully responsible for. About one in five voters consider this an important theme, according to research by I&O Research and Berenschot. Voters expect the municipality to keep the neighborhood clean, maintain the greenery and provide facilities such as playgrounds, community centers and libraries.
There are also high expectations about the latter subject, the researchers say. The ‘biggest discount hits’ fall precisely at facilities. Municipalities have to make cutbacks, in other areas this is not easy because the national legal requirements apply there.
Concrete city
Seventies Els and Embert van Tilburg start on the Markt in Delft about quality of life: community centers have been cut back and with that ‘help at the bottom of society’. Embert: “Youth care was transferred to the municipality. Nationally, they do not listen that more money has to be spent.” Maybe property taxes should go up, he says. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” says Els. Only 7 percent of voters are in favor of higher local taxes.
Liveability is also about green. People in their forties Bartel Timmermans and Pascale Klein Hegeman from Rotterdam call ‘greening’ the most important topic that the municipality should be dealing with. Klein Hegeman: “People have been pursuing New York for years.” Timmermans: “Rotterdam remains a concrete city.”
Sustainability is the most important issue for one in five voters, especially for left-wing younger voters. The municipality cannot live up to its high expectations on this subject, conclude I&O Research and Berenschot. Municipalities can make their own buildings greener, make rules about, for example, the collection of rainwater or compulsory climate-proof construction. But all climate ambitions have been laid down by central government in laws and agreements, with specific tasks for municipalities. For example, they have to get away from the gas. The researchers warn: “A counter-reaction can be coercion or coercion with consequences for local voter confidence.”
Quality of life is also about safety. That is the most important theme for secular right-wing conservatives, older and secondary-educated voters. A large proportion of voters (59 percent) think that the municipality is completely or largely about it. Indeed, the mayor is responsible for maintaining public order. He has the authority, for example, to close drug premises or to designate a risk area where a preventive search is carried out or where an alcohol or cannabis ban applies.
Here too expectations and reality do not correspond: the mayor is dependent on the capacity of the National Police and there is a shortage of officers throughout the country. Municipalities are increasingly deploying boas for enforcement. They do fall under them.
“Then we will release municipal funds,” says Silvia Bruggenkamp, leader of the local party Swollwacht from Zwolle. “This is my great frustration: the police are busy taking care of confused people on the street. Not with maintaining public order and crime.” She says: “More blue on the streets is a nice election slogan. But that’s not what we’re talking about, that’s just a fact.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of March 9, 2022
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