Sustainable spatial development: the province's role in housing

Wednesday, March 20, is the Provincial Council elections. However, many people, including myself, do not know what the province does. One of the seven core provincial tasks is ‘sustainable spatial development’, but what exactly does this mean? Based on my interest in housing and housing, I wanted to investigate the role of the province and it turns out this falls under sustainable spatial development.

First, a little more about provincial government. It may help to visualise the layers of government as a pyramid with national government at the top, provincial government in the middle and municipal government at the bottom. If you want to know more read here further. This is North Holland's current seat distribution:

1. VVD (11 seats)
2. D66 (10 seats)
3. Labour Party (7 seats)
4. PVV (6 seats)
5. SP (6 seats)
6. CDA (5 seats)
7. GroenLinks (4 seats)
8. Party for the Animals (3 seats)
9. 50PLUS (1 seat)
10. Christian Union-SGP (1 seat)
11. Elderly party N-H (1 seat)

Sustainable spatial development is thus a core task on which the interprovincial consultations have this to say: ‘The province determines how our environment is laid out. Are there enough houses, can a business park expand further and will nature get enough space? The province weighs up these interests and makes choices that are in the interests of the region.’ This is relatively vague, but fortunately the province of North Holland issued a feelgood video put online that clarifies it somewhat. The video talks about a liveable city, the energy transition, well-functioning public transport and enough housing for everyone. That sounds very nice, but I don't get the same feelgood sense of reality. Thus, Van Gent wrote in (2013) ‘Neoliberalisation, Housing Institutions and Variegated Gentrification: How the ‘Third Wave’ Broke in Amsterdam’.’ that not the market but neoliberal government restructuring has been the driving factor in the third wave of gentrification. Van Gent talks about the breaking power of waves, but in context I think it is also appropriate to talk about broken housing dreams. In Amsterdam, houses for sale are virtually unaffordable for those without pre-built (family) capital, waiting times for social housing are dauntingly long and rents in the free sector are rising rapidly

So in Amsterdam, housing is a daunting challenge. According to Bart Vink, candidate member of parliament for D66, the city cannot do it alone and the province should also be looked at. Building in the area is one option, but is this a good solution? In 2018, minister Ollongren made a similar call: build more in North Holland. This resonated with Maxime Verhagen:  “The housing challenge in our country is huge. Together with municipalities, we are looking at where 75,000 houses will be built every year. Holland over Amsterdam is energetically getting to work and is in talks with the Amsterdam Metropolitan Region. As far as I am concerned, other regions can take a leaf out of their book.“  It is worth noting that 12,000 fewer homes were built in North Holland in 2018 than planned. I therefore find it curious that Verhagen sees the current course of events as an example.

Making use of unused space and converting space is a better option, in my opinion, because that way we can accommodate people relatively quickly. One example is vacant industrial sites. There is a lot of vacant space that could be utilised for housing and could breathe new life into existing industrial estates. With this in mind, the province can play a role in how municipalities deal with applications for new industrial sites.

Moreover, I certainly do not think it is an ideal solution to send existing and aspiring Amsterdammers to the area. Is this even necessary? It is certainly not desirable because, in my opinion, Amsterdam should present itself as approachable, egalitarian and accessible. This point does not seem to resonate with current policymakers and it may indeed be the case that there is not enough room in Amsterdam to build for everyone who wants to live here. But I think we should still strive to be able to accommodate as many people as possible here.

In the video and environment vision is relatively widely used words like sustainability, circular economy, biodiversity and nature-inclusive. That is why it is extra special to me that three of the four current coalition parties are in favour of the expansion of schiphol and two of the four are not against building in the green environment.

When building new houses, critical consideration should also be given to who they are building them for. For social rental housing, North Holland has the longest waiting times, headed by the municipality of Wormer where people have to wait 29.4 (!) years. It is important that good building plans are also implemented for social housing, which is lacking in the current environment vision. This is unfortunate, because the authority is there; in South Holland, for example, the province did submit a motion for municipalities to require social rent to be added.

Evidently, there are different challenges and visions. For instance, the province has an important role in implementing the environment vision in cooperation with municipalities. The province's video is ambitious but, in my opinion, gives too positive a picture of reality. Therefore, I hereby declare the period before the election as the period of making videos and 2019 the year of turning video into reality. So to make this a reality, make your voice heard on 20 March!

Political Amsterdam Commission Team,

Borach