Extra money for Dutch national monuments. Minister Bruins: ‘We need these fixed values’

Something has been shifted, and now there is extra money for heritage. OCW minister Eppo Bruins (NSC) will spend an additional 155 million euros on maintenance of national monuments, and 15.8 million euros structurally. He announced that on Monday.

Part of the more than sixty thousand national monuments in the Netherlands have overdue maintenance. The amount that Minister Bruins now grants does not solve that problem, but does bring relief. More money means that more monumental owners can receive a subsidy for the maintenance of their building or can take out an affordable loan.

The money that Bruins assigns to heritage is mainly intended for large national monuments, buildings such as the town hall of Middelburg or the Rivièrahal in Blijdorp Zoo. Of the incidental 155 million euros, 100 million will benefit large national monuments. The structural 15.8 million euros is for the subsidy scheme for Maintenance Monuments, which is also intended for national monumental residential houses. This scheme rejected 315 applications last year because there was no money for it.

In a letter to the House of Representatives, Bruins writes that the maintenance of heritage is important, « with the large spatial tasks that the Netherlands stands for, the physical living environment is changing rapidly and sometimes radically. Maintaining monuments as iconic elements is then even more urgent ». He does not mean it so much as a warning, he explains on the phone on Monday morning, he wants to « express appreciation » about what monuments mean for the identity of a country. Now, he means, « at this time where there is so much change on the world stage, we need those fixed values, monuments can give us a feeling of being at home. »

The money that Bruins now makes available for monuments is not sufficient to achieve the maintenance goal. That goal is to only have a restoration delay in 10 percent of national monuments that are not a house. To achieve that goal, between 367 and 770 million euros extra would be needed, depending on whether the goal should be reached in 2033 or 2040. The more haste, the more money is needed. That calculated Bruins predecessor in June 2024; Then the backlog was 14.6 percent. New national monuments will soon be designated, in the Post 65 buildings from the period 1965-1990, military heritage, heritage from the Cold War and gift homes of the flood disaster in 1953. After the summer the first instructions will follow, the National Service for Cultural Heritage (RCE) expects. With the instructions of new national monuments, the costs of maintenance will also increase.

Accounting

The money that Bruins granted Monday was not released by cutting back on somewhere else, but by accounting shift with money from the OCW budget. For example, a benefit to the National Restoration Fund is put forward, and money that remains in the OCW budget is now getting a new destination.

Bruins cannot say how much closer to the restoration goal is due to the new investment. « At least we are taking a big step, » he says in a response. But he also points out that he cannot achieve this goal with his subsidy policy. « Whether we really achieve the objective in 2033 also depends on the use of upcoming cabinets and how many people apply for a subsidy and whether they can find professionals. So it depends on a number of factors. »

Bruins also thought it sounds crazy when he heard about it for the first time, but the intention is that there is a backlog. Hence that 10 percent as an objective. Otherwise, there is the fear that there is insufficient work for the craftsmen who carry out restorations on monuments. Bruins compares it with the banking crisis of 2008, after which housing came to a halt: all kinds of builders lost their jobs, and then it was quite a job to find them again. You want to prevent something like that with monument care.

Bruins also announced on Monday that the ‘Future of Religious Heritage’ program will be extended for dealing with the emptying of prayer houses. According to Bruins, the fact that there are talk about churches and synagogues, but mosques are not mentioned. The term ‘prayer houses’ includes everything, he says. Moreover, there are no national monumental mosques yet, although that could change with the upcoming indication of new monuments.

The extra amount helps monument care, but more is needed to keep it healthy. This is how the National Service for Cultural Heritage noted last year That many municipalities are troubled with their heritage tasks. Owners of national monuments must be at municipalities if they want to apply for a permit for a renovation. A municipality must then request advice from the local monument committee, and at the National Service for Cultural Heritage. But that does not always happen, or it is not done enough, the RCE sees. That has consequences: monuments are not always treated with sufficient care. Bruins acknowledges that « knowledge and capacity among municipalities and provinces has been a concern for a long time ». At the beginning of 2024, an incentive program was established for this, he emphasizes: heritage and government, that local authorities must support in their heritage tasks by, for example, ensuring that sufficient archaeologists work in every region. But he also knows: the problem is not solved easily.

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