Cabinet establishes national spatial vision and makes choices: Draft Spatial Note to the House of Representatives

Minister Keijzer: “As a country, we face enormous challenges that require national direction and choices. Housing, accessibility, energy, defense, economy, water, soil, agriculture, and nature all need space. But space is scarce, and we can only distribute it properly once. Therefore, we must make choices now about our living environment in the future. The cabinet has set a balanced and cohesive course in recent times. We want the Netherlands to remain recognizable for its inhabitants, but not everything will stay the same. We cannot remain stagnant. Every region counts, as we need all regions for the challenges in the physical living environment. We do not simply shift problems elsewhere or to future generations and strive for a fair distribution of benefits and burdens.”

National choices regarding the organization of the Netherlands require coherence. Therefore, we connect subjects that are most closely related. We distinguish four major themes: Living, Working and Accessibility, Economy and Energy, Agriculture and Nature, and Water and Soil.

Each region has its own characteristics, challenges, and ambitions, and therefore the government wants to work with provinces, regions, and municipalities on five distinctive development strategies for living, working, and accessibility: strengthen, initiate, stimulate, transform, and accommodate (VISTA).

We choose to strengthen areas that are growing more slowly on their own. Here, we focus on the development of living and working, suitable to the size and scale of the region, while maintaining and developing facilities. This applies, for example, to Zeeland and Friesland. In specific areas like Groningen-Assen, Twente, and South Limburg, we want to initiate a growth leap. The existing large cities, companies, universities, and knowledge institutions offer opportunities for an economic growth leap. In areas where the population is increasing but the economy could use a boost, we choose to stimulate. In regions like Zwolle and Arnhem-Nijmegen, we focus on job growth. Special attention is given to the Rotterdam-Den Haag region, where transforming is the strategy. Here, there are significant changes needed in the existing urban area and landscape. We want to make this region future-proof so that it can compete again at the European level. In the most dynamic metropolitan regions, such as Amsterdam and Eindhoven, with strong economic and population growth, we talk about accommodating. These regions remain engines of the Dutch economy, but in balance with the quality of the living environment. For this, facilities and infrastructure need to grow along, and an emphasis on affordable housing is necessary.

The housing shortage is high, and we want to solve this. Therefore, we designate four new national and 127 regional large-scale housing construction locations. In addition, we stimulate the development of small-scale and medium-sized housing construction locations (including a street added and a street in) in areas with a limited housing need, in addition to the existing supply. A neighborhood can also be built in all of the Netherlands (up to 100 homes) adjacent to an existing core, fitting within the spatial context. The large-scale locations are located in and near existing urban areas and are well connected by car and public transport. Within regions, urban nodes of road and rail are places where living, working, and facilities concentrate. This way, we utilize existing infrastructure and can efficiently expand it with new large-scale infrastructure.

To strengthen the investment climate, it is necessary to handle space for the economy carefully and to retain vital business activities on industrial estates. The course we are taking is to maximize the use of scarce space for economic functions, protect it, strategically expand it, and compensate where necessary. Strengthening and expanding the energy infrastructure is an important prerequisite for other developments and is therefore prioritized. The energy-intensive clusters, such as the Port of Rotterdam and Chemelot, are explicitly designated as of national importance in the Draft Spatial Note because they are essential for our economic development and for the energy and raw material transition. We will work with parties from these clusters on a long-term strategy. The government also wants to work with regions in the coming period to strengthen the regional economy and further develop the energy system. In addition to the space on land, the limited space in the North Sea has also been weighed to ensure more wind energy, shipping, and cables for energy and data, in good balance with nature and fisheries. Of course, a strong Netherlands also requires space for defense. Space is needed for training and exercises and for housing personnel and storing equipment. We want to actively seize opportunities for strengthening the regional economy or nature.

Dutch agriculture is indispensable for food security, the livability of rural areas, and the preservation of our valuable cultural landscapes. Therefore, we choose to handle agricultural land carefully. A decision-making framework for the withdrawal of agricultural land will be established, where (local) governments first look at the possibilities to combine functions or to make land with other functions available.

In addition, a robust and resilient nature is the basis for a healthy and safe living environment and drinking water supply. We meet international agreements for a robust nature and combine this as much as possible with other tasks. The tasks for agriculture and nature differ by region, depending on local conditions. This does not change the fact that farmers, gardeners, and nature managers must take climate change into account and adjust land use accordingly.

There are several areas where many challenges come together, and the issues are particularly complex and urgent. In areas around nature reserves where challenges such as improving water quality and reducing nitrogen come together, we ensure a balance between these tasks and the current (often agricultural) functions. Thus, we focus on a combination of functions, such as agricultural nature management and agriculture.

The Netherlands has lived with water for centuries, and we will continue to do so. Low-lying Netherlands will remain safely habitable in the long term. But for water safety and freshwater supply, we will need to make our water and soil system future-proof. Therefore, we reserve space around the major rivers and large waters so that we can raise dikes and maintain and possibly increase the freshwater supply in the IJsselmeer. In addition, regions will have more responsibility for their own freshwater supply by retaining, storing, and saving more water. To better prepare ourselves locally for extreme weather, we will create more space for greenery and water retention.

The Draft Spatial Note will be made available for public review so that everyone can respond, after which the final Note will be established. The final Spatial Note is a binding national spatial vision for the government under the Environmental Act.