Rental freezing and further out of sight: no chamber majority without full compensation for housing associations

The chance that the rental freezing will be implemented this year seems to be increasingly smaller. The plan was to let the measure go in before July 1, but residential minister Mona Keijzer (BBB) ​​receives insufficient support for this. Not only the opposition is bothering, Coalitiepart NSC also has its reservations.

Only when full compensation for housing corporations comes, does the party agree with the bill, says NSC MP Merlien Welzijn on Wednesday during a housing debate. In the Spring Memorandum, coalition parties PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB decided to freeze the social rents for the next two years. The deal could count on substantial criticism: warning housing associations that their investment capacity is decreasing sharply, which means that new construction plans will be under pressure in the next ten years.

It also remained unclear until last Friday whether the half million social tenants of private landlords could also expect a freezing freezing. Keijzer said that this was not possible. According to the residential minister, it turned out to be « extremely complicated » to compensate for these landlords.

‘Ugly Hague deal’

Opposition parties from left to right are extremely critical during the parliamentary debate on Wednesday afternoon about the freezing and consequences for housing associations. « An ugly Hague deal, » concludes D66 MP Hans Vijlbrief. The opposition attacks are mainly focused on the PVV, of which party leader Geert Wilders immediately claimed the plan after the spring memorandum. « The only successful thing about this (plan) is that about the whole of the Netherlands is against it, » continues Vijlbrief. ChristenUnie, CDA, SGP and JA21, among others, are not talking about the plans.

Minister Keijzer is in a difficult position: the bill must be adopted on 1 July before the annual rent increases. Last Friday the plan was approved by the Council of Ministers and Keijzer sent the bill to the Council of State for advice. Only then can the First and Lower House vote on the plan. When that will be exactly, and whether it can take place before the summer recess is the question.

It is known that the residential minister is not a strong proponent of the rental freezing. « I had not made the decision because I knew what consequences it has for the investment capacity of corporations, » she says during the parliamentary debate. But Keijzer sees it as her duty to perform the assignment of the coalition parties. « I am very committed. I operate within the limits that the room gives me. »

Oral commitment

NSC MP Welfare is certainly about it. The construction plans of corporations are not allowed to be at stake, she says during the debate. Her party only agrees with the rent freezing if there is a complete compensation for the housing associations.

Welfare is based on the amount of compensation on the opinion of the Housing Corporations Authority, part of the National Inspectorate. He suggested In a report last week That corporations miss out on 35 billion euros in investment capacity.

It is striking that VVD MP Peter de Groot continues during the debate that there is still sufficient investment capacity left ‘around 70 billion’, of the originally planned 105 billion euros. There is already sufficient compensation, according to the VVD: the coalition parties have intended 1 billion euros for that.

That 1 billion in compensation will not make the difference, not only Aedes, branch association of housing associations, but also residential minister Mona Keijzer in a letter she sent to the room on Tuesday evening.

Bears on the road

What a wider compensation for the corporations would look like is still unclear. Also whether there is enough political support for it. For example, we can look at the abolition of corporation tax for housing associations, but the chance that this will be supported by the Chamber is minimal. Earlier, a majority of the House voted against a similar proposal as part of the initiative law of GroenLinks-PvdA MP Habtamu de Hoop.

In addition, it became clear on Wednesday morning that Aedes will definitively start a lawsuit against the cabinet on the rental freezing. Through summary proceedings, the corporations want to force the cabinet and minister Keijzer to freeze social rents this and next year and to meet the National Performance Agreements (NPA). In December, Minister Keijzer, together with municipalities and housing corporations, agreed that from 2029 30,000 new social rental homes will be built annually.

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