Today, the House of Representatives is informed with the letter Long-term Perspective Infrastructure and Housing Construction about what a next cabinet can do to improve the accessibility of new and existing homes and businesses in the future. The main recommendation is to choose infrastructure-strengthening projects and make them financially feasible by working from a long-term perspective specifically for this type of projects. In addition to large-scale new infrastructure projects, it is also about the growing need to maintain, renovate, and replace existing infrastructure.
Minister Tieman: “In recent years, the shortage of money, manpower, and permit issuance has caused large projects to be paused. If we want to ensure that there are enough well-accessible homes in our country, we must choose good and sufficient infrastructure. No one wants to live in a place where you cannot reach or exit the neighborhood.”
Minister Keijzer: “Solving the housing shortage is one of the main priorities for the coming years. Therefore, we have designated over 100 new housing construction locations in the Draft Spatial Planning Note. Good infrastructure is essential here, because without infrastructure, those homes are inaccessible and construction cannot proceed. But strong businesses and military transport also require investments in infrastructure. It is important that we make choices for infrastructure-strengthening projects like the Merwedelijn and junction Hoevelaken and that we allocate sufficient funds for this with a long-term perspective.
Accessibility
Accessibility is a prerequisite for a country where it is pleasant to live, with a healthy economy. We use our roads, railways, and waterways to get to work, school, and family, to supply supermarkets, deliver packages, and keep our economy running. With the further growth of the population, the need for mobility grows, and we maintain the construction of structurally 100,000 homes per year. Strengthening and expanding good infrastructure is essential to make new and existing homes well accessible and keep them that way. Additionally, geopolitical changes create higher demands on our infrastructure, for example, regarding military transport.
Shortages and lack of perspective
Due to shortages of labor, money, physical space, and difficulties in obtaining permits due to, among other things, nitrogen and a focus on short-term and isolated projects with a regional focus, it is difficult to implement infrastructure-strengthening projects. Because the government offers too little long-term certainty, execution organizations and market parties cannot organize themselves for a growing demand for the execution of construction projects.
Further development of infrastructure
The new National Environmental Vision, the Draft Spatial Planning Note, provides direction for the spatial development of the Netherlands towards 2050 and beyond. With the Draft Spatial Planning Note, the cabinet chooses to strengthen and expand the urban network of the Netherlands and powerful regions with an independent character. Studies and forecasts show that further development of infrastructure is necessary to keep the Netherlands accessible for a growing population. Examples of projects that should make this possible include the Lelylijn, the IJmeer connection to Almere, the Merwedelijn near Utrecht, junction Hoevelaken near Amersfoort, and the (international) accessibility of Brainport Eindhoven. In addition to the call to structurally reserve more funds, the cabinet is investigating, in the lead-up to a new cabinet, to what extent the start-up and turnaround time of large-scale projects can be shortened.