Finance

FINANCE MANY MILLIONS,

Michiel Couzy

Spending plans for the year ahead were yet again announced without the traditional trappings of the Golden Coach and stately setting of the Ridderzaal. A demissionary cabinet notwithstanding, the annual speech by the King on 21 September 2021 was still set to take place. What does the central government intend for Amsterdam, and how will this affect municipal plans? Michiel Couzy, deputy editor-in-chief of Het Parool newspaper, spent years on the political beat and now has a helicopter view of all the big issues in the capital. He took us through the announced plans at the paper’s editorial office and talked about key elements for Zuidas.

MANY MILLIONS, FEW PLANS

The Annual Budget could be summed up as: ‘’many billions, but few plans.’’ As usual, bits and pieces were leaked to the media in the days leading up to 21 September. As acting editor-in-chief, Michiel Couzy is at the heart of Het Parool, where he works on developing titles for online and print. “My job has changed tremendously. Where I used to dive headfirst into the Annual Budget, how it would affect Amsterdam, and the parliamentary debate in The Hague. Nowadays I’m at the editorial office following affairs from a distance.That said, we work with the reporters to decide what the paper needs to cover, and how.” As well as its desk in Amsterdam, Het Parool also has an editorial partnership with the Algemeen Dagblad for reporting on The Hague. The Amsterdam paper covers political implications for the city as well. “Like other political desks, the editorial office in The Hague received the Annual Budget the minute it came out.” Their first questions: “What are the stated political consequences, where are big additional sums going, and subsequently, what more was said at the general considerations.”

Housing and climate Given the cabinet’s demissionary status, there are no concrete plans for next year. However, funding has been allocated to two key areas, with 1 billion set aside for the construction of 100,000 additional homes and 7 billion towards sustainability measures targeting housing, industry and incentivizing electric driving. “Zuidasdok is a term that comes up as a budgetary item, but there’s not much further mention of Zuidas in the Annual Budget. One of the most critical issues right now, which we’re also observing at Het Parool, is the housing crisis. The thinking is to economize less on housing associations in order to stimulate construction of affordable rental homes. This has always been the idea in Zuidas as well.” The day after the national government released its Annual Budget, Amsterdam announced its own plans for the coming year. According to Michiel, that’s a far more important event for the city.

Amsterdam budget Amsterdam has its own balance sheet, and the announcement of the municipal annual budget and plans for the city is a seminal moment of the year. “The annual budget for Amsterdam tell us more about the future of Zuidas. This includes the ambition, which has existed for some time, to develop the office district into a more mixed area where people both work and live. The Amsterdam budget shows this in terms of spending on new homes, the cinema and library. Also addressed are climaterelated issues, such as optimizing public transport use and cutting down on cars in the city.” Development of the office district into a mixed-use residential community is near the top of Michiel’s list of topics to watch. “The municipality’s ambition is that everyone, including low-income earners, can live anywhere in the city, also in Zuidas. I’m very curious to see how this unfolds and what the community here will be like. It’s those smaller stories that interest me.”