This is evident from the budget of the Ministry of the Interior, which was presented to the House of Representatives on the day of the budget. Investment should prevent further housing shortages. The government had previously provided €2 billion for the housing-building boost, but Minister Ollongren (Home Affairs) warned in the spring that the bottom of the bowl was on the horizon. There was broad political support for solving this problem. That’s why an extra billion is saved.

The House of Representatives has mainly focused on the additional funds to address the housing shortage. This has become an ongoing problem. According to the calculations, there are already 331,000 deficit homes in the Netherlands and this shortage will only increase in the coming years, to at least 419,000 homes in 2025.

The government has already tried to turn the tide. In 2019, 2 billion euros have already been allocated to boosting housing construction, but at the moment this does not seem to be enough. In recent years, the outgoing Minister Olungren (Home Affairs) concluded non-binding “housing deals” that could not prevent the survival of a large deficit. The government aims to build an additional 75,000 homes each year, but that is not enough.

The main issues are transferred to the formation table and the next government. There is a huge shortage of housing. In politics, The Hague is increasingly calling for the return of the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment (VROM) to more influence.

The cut is also made for sustainability. In the coming years, the government will invest more than 1.3 billion euros in order to “accelerate the process of making buildings more sustainable”. 500 million euros is for insulation, 300 million for the purchase of heat pumps and 500 million for making, for example, police and judiciary buildings, schools and hospitals more energy efficient.

The extra money will also go to municipalities and prefectures to maintain public facilities. Next year, 1.3 billion euros will be used to make up for the shortfall in youth care. 6.5 million will be earmarked for elections in 2022, primarily to make municipal elections available. Secret Intelligence AIVD receives an additional $15 million on a structural basis, among other things to monitor “undesirable foreign funding of Salafist agitators”.