Isn’t the whole of the Netherlands entitled to the Groningen Postcode Kanjer?
The belated Postcode champ paid out by the government in Groningen has ended in chaos. Fifty thousand Groningen households with a zip code that starts with a 9 and a high number are eligible for a shower of ten thousand euros, because they live in an area where earthquakes occur. Although their homes do not appear to be unsafe, they could not receive a gift because of the suffering received.
The scheme – on top of the compensations for actual damage and depreciation – is a desperate move to placate northerners. Rightly acting Limburgers along the Maas now also receive ten thousand euros. Or tens of thousands of people in the Rijnmond or the IJmond may opt for a douceurtje, because they live with the nuisance of Tata. And what about the people who live under the noise of Schiphol?
The cabinet had earmarked 220 million euros for the prize that fell in Groningen, possibly in the bizarre expectation that half of the households did not want ten thousand euros at all. Now that the new Mining State Secretary is adding another 200 million, because the ‘first come, first served’ arrangement may work for theater shows, pop concerts and football matches, but not for damage claims.
Formally, the people of Groningen have to earn ten thousand euros by improving the house: new gutters or a different kitchen for the bathroom. A global cost overview is sufficient. The money they save from their own pocket will be part of a nice cruise or the purchase of a speed pedelec. It is hardly possible that they are in line. When ten thousand euros beckon, Groningers do not distinguish themselves from the rest of the Netherlands, Europe of the world.
The entire claims settlement relating to gas extraction is at odds with Rutte IV’s motto: ‘Looking after each other’, whereby the worst victims can count on the power. The real examples of gas extraction – the people whose homes are safe – are waiting for the real bills to be drawn up. They can do nothing, the people in the ‘not-unsafe houses’ replace kitchens and have a garage built. When it is the turn of the people whose houses are collapsing, there is no installation contractor to be found. There is a lack of people in construction. And at the same time, the cabinet also wants to build one hundred thousand thousand euros a year to alleviate the new housing shortage, something that already seems almost impossible. It is incomprehensible that the Ministry of the Interior, which devised the scheme and the Northern Netherlands Foundation that has to implement it, cannot calculate in advance 220 million euros for five thousand thousand households not linked to ten thousand euros.
Now division has been created as the Postcode can get, with the one with a lottery ticket becoming a millionaire and the neighbors without a lottery nothing. This makes neighborhoods financially wiser, but not more fun.