Is a coalition agreement tailor-made for Amsterdam?
A sugar tax? Amsterdam idea from 2016. Nationally 55 percent CO2reduction in 2030? Has Amsterdam been trying to abolish the landlord levy since 2018. A plea from several Amsterdam housing aldermen is heard. Anyone who reads the Coalition Agreement through Amsterdam’s glasses is not depressed at first sight because of the agreements that VVD, D66, CDA and the ChristenUnie have made with each other.
In many places, the new coalition agreement addresses the problems that have been felt in large cities such as Amsterdam for some time. For example, in the area of housing, where politics in The Hague is making some big decisions that can bring about change in the capital.
The most far-reaching is the gradual abolition of the landlord levy. As a result, the Amsterdam housing associations will eventually be able to invest an additional EUR 200 million annually in public housing. In addition, it is difficult for them to explain why it is still necessary to sell social housing, a large derivative of the city council.
The ‘market test’ is also being dropped for housing associations, resulting in more opportunities to undertake urban renewal and to build mid-range rental homes – the category where the scarcity is greatest. Mid-term rental homes between 750 and 1000 euros per month receive payment during the term of the investment.
skewed residents
Some measures are annoying for those concerned, but good for the city. For example, the owner-occupied market will be influenced by the abolition of the ‘jubelton’ – the tax-free gift of 100,000 euros from wealthy parents to children. This will especially have an effect on the price development in the 19th-century ring road around the center, where young two-income couples with a Jubelton in their pocket are massively overbidding to get a city apartment in a hip neighbourhood.
Skewed residents will also sleep badly this week. The coalition agreement to lower high social rents for the lowest incomes, but for incumbent residents who have too much, this will go ‘step by step to a market-based rent’. Since the difference between protected rent and market rents in Amsterdam is large, this has consequences for thousands, if not tens of thousands, of social tenants.
Teacher shortage in Amsterdam
There are also cautious attempts by the Rutte IV cabinet to restore the task of equality and the social product. In this way, people entitled to social assistance can earn more extra. In addition, the cost-sharing standard – a cohabitation fine for benefit recipients – will be abolished for young people up to the age of 27. Disability insurance will be introduced for the self-employed and for the cultural sector there will be a recovery plan – plus an additional 170 million euros on a structural basis. Many Amsterdammers in the cultural and creative sector will benefit later.
Closing the pay gap between secondary and primary school teachers is not yet such an Amsterdam wish that has come true and that can help curb the teacher shortage. There is also a breakthrough in the field of health: the Stopera has been asking the cabinet for some time to introduce a sugar tax and not to levy VAT on fruit and vegetables. Nationally, VVD, D66, CDA and CU now promise this. It remains to be seen how this can be achieved, but the first step is being taken by making soft drinks with sugar more expensive and vegetables and fruit cheaper.
The rules for retaining dual nationality are also being relaxed, which is interesting for a city where the majority of the inhabitants have a migration background.
uncertainties
The coalition agreement also brings computing power. For example, the announcement that distance standards will apply to wind turbines on land, a complicating factor for the announced 17 wind turbines in this densely built-up region. And although the financing for extending the North/South line to Hoofddorp is explicitly mentioned, this clarity is lacking for other plans.
Project Zuidasdok, the completion of the metro ring line of a new metro line to Almere: it is hoped that these projects will contribute to the announced 7.5 billion euros to open up new residential areas around cities. Nothing has even been agreed at all in the coalition agreement about Schiphol and the next opening of Lelystad Airport. The four parties must reach an agreement in 2022.
The promise that ‘biomass firing will be phased out as soon as possible’ will probably be the death blow for the large biomass power station that is to be built next to IJburg in Diemen. And it is the question that this means for the biomass power station in the port of Amsterdam, which will be completed in 2020.
The new cabinet has opted to give municipalities more leeway over the years. The municipal fund will receive billions of euros extra, among other things to make up for the shortfalls in youth care, and a plan is being drawn up to have municipalities levy more local taxes themselves. After years of removal and sometimes even aversion to the ‘white wine-sipping elite’ in the canal belt, Prime Minister Mark Rutte now seems confident that with a little help from The Hague, cities are perfectly capable of providing a better life for their citizens. give residents.