Cabinet sets aside €355m to connect four large new housing areas
The money will give nearly 30,000 planned homes in Alkmaar, Apeldoorn, Helmond and Hengelo/Enschede road, cycle and public transport links.
The cabinet is making €355m available to improve access to the four nationally designated large-scale housing areas named in 2025: Alkmaar, Apeldoorn, Helmond and Hengelo/Enschede. Almost 30,000 homes will be built in them.
Municipalities can spend the money on roads, cycle paths or public transport to connect the new residential districts. The cabinet is also putting an extra €18bn into maintaining and renewing roads, bridges, railways and waterworks.
In deciding where to invest in mobility, the cabinet says it gave great weight to house building. Its stated aim is to build more homes, faster and better. It also weighed maintenance against new projects, including the spending needed to keep existing cities and homes now being built accessible.
Existing agreements on opening up housing developments stay in place. A number of projects are being paused, either for lack of funding or because they cannot currently be carried out.
This autumn the cabinet will designate five new nationally designated large-scale housing locations in the Nota Ruimte, each with thousands of new homes. For future sites it is choosing places where people can work close to home, so less investment in accessibility is needed.
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nationaal grootschalige woningbouwgebieden
Nationally designated large-scale housing areas are sites that the Dutch national government selects as priority locations for building very large numbers of homes. Because they serve national housing goals, they receive national support for planning and for the roads, rail and other infrastructure needed before construction can proceed.
Nota Ruimte
The Nota Ruimte is the Dutch national government's spatial policy document, which sets out where and how the country should use its land and space. It covers national priorities such as housing, work, infrastructure and nature, and it guides how provinces and municipalities plan their areas.