Building outside the city? Ten years ago, D66'-er Duco Bodewes was still pertinently opposed. Meanwhile, the spiritual father of "the ten cities" has been converted. "To accelerate, we also have to build in a stupid meadow."
Is he house whisperer to the new Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning Elanor Boekholt- O'Sullivan? "No, no... It starts off nicely so this podcast (Bureau Stoer, ed). I co-wrote D66's housing plan together with Hans Vijlbrief, but I'm no house whisperer," bites off Duco Bodewes, former D66 list leader in Nijmegen. Whether he is the man of the ten cities ... "There are more than 100 concrete solutions to the problems in the housing market in the plan ...", he cleverly sidesteps.
Speaking of those 10 new cities. Did those come from your quiver?
"And from Hans Vijlbrief's. We came up with that together, just as you have to solve everything in the housing market together."
But there is nothing left of those 10 new cities in the coalition agreement?
"Yes indeed, they are just in there."
So those ten new cities are coming?
"Yes there are 30 major locations being addressed, including new cities. By the way, I'm not just representing the D66 sound or anything. When we made that housing plan I also talked to numerous purebred VVD people and other people that nobody knows, but have hearty good ideas; from developers, investors and corporations. I listened to everyone who has a concrete solution to solve problems in the housing market."
Back to the delusion of the day. You see dark clouds contracting over the housing market. Which ones?
"Rising interest rates, rising construction costs... In the coalition agreement, many of our plans remained intact, so that's good news. However, there are a few things that are missing. The main one is that there is too little money available. That is the big task we have to work on in the coming months."
What did you actually think of the previous cabinet?
"Labby. Worthless. It really didn't live up to anything. I mean that apolitically. It's just revolting. Just polarization. Just people saying why something can't be done. Instead, we need breakthroughs and cooperation."
What do you expect from this government when it comes to housing?
"In any case, it can't get any worse, I can say that anyway."
So you are a fan of ten new cities. Pretty remarkable. As founder of research firm the STEC Group 20 years ago, you were not exactly known as the man who promoted building outside the city. Rather the other way around...
"There are also still members within D66 who want to keep everything within the city. However. If we want to speed things up, we also have to build in the meadows. There you can scale up faster."
When were you 'converted'?
"In recent years I saw that my insight was a little too dogmatic after all. Mind you. We are not talking about nature here, but about stupid meadows where you can build a new city just fine, with nice facilities, which even contributes to nature development and water storage."
He adds that the plans are also about splitting houses, about topping up residential buildings, etc etc etc.
"Do you remember that rubik's cube from the old days?", Bodewes asks the interviewer.
The interviewer: "I never got that one solved."
Bodewes: "Neither do I, but you probably had one side right sometimes and the other side wrong again. In the housing market, it's exactly like that. You can't solve the problems just with ten new cities or one other measure. You really have to do several things to get it done..."
By the way, have you already spoken with the new minister?
"Certainly."
What is your first assessment?
"She listens and asks very good questions."
What questions did the minister ask you?
"I'm not going to quote her, but one thing I can tell you....
Curious about the whole answer? And to the entire interview, with market and government expert Nicole Maarsen as a sidekick?
Then listen to the latest episode of Bureau Stoer.
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