The cabinet is prepared to release approximately 400 million euros to invest in the quality of life and sustainability of vulnerable residential areas. It is one of the measures to ensure that GroenLinks and the PvdA agree to the housing budget.
Sources from The Hague report this to the political editorial staff of RTL Nieuws. The parties are still talking to each other. An agreement should be reached one of these days, because the House of Representatives will debate the housing budget on Monday. The cabinet needs the support of opposition parties to get that budget through the Senate. The coalition does not have a majority there.
Rent free sector
The cabinet also wants to further curtail rent increases in the private sector. Minister Kajsa Ollongren had initially announced that she would legally regulate that rents in the free sector would increase annually with inflation plus a maximum of 2.5 percent. That will now be inflation plus 1 percent, the same percentage agreed in the social rental agreement for the social sector. The PvdA has already submitted a private member’s bill for this.
Singles Penalty
Furthermore, single people who want to qualify for social housing no longer have to worry about adjusting the income threshold. This adjustment would mean that single people would be more likely to rely on private sector housing. But the so-called “single punishment” is therefore canceled if the parties reach an agreement.
Investments in vulnerable neighborhoods in particular have led to much discussion. Initially, the cabinet offered only 20 million euros for this. After consultation, this was increased to 200 million. But the left opposition parties also found that amount too low. Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra has now indicated that the amount can go to about 400 million euros.
Support
To get support for the housing budget, Minister Ollongren and her colleague Hoekstra mainly talked to GroenLinks, De PvdA, 50Plus and Forum for Democracy.
If the left-wing parties still do not agree with the deal that the cabinet is offering, then Minister Ollongren does not have to fear for her budget. According to sources from The Hague, she has now found enough support from SGP, 50Plus, Forum for Democracy, OSF and the Otten group.
