Significant lobbying efforts recently resulted in a favorable amendment and some motions from the House of Representatives in the Netherlands. In a unanimous decision, the Dutch House of Representatives voted in favour of two important motions in late November. Complementary decisions were made to provide support for organizations of expertise like Cooplink and to reduce legislative impediments to community-led housing initiatives.

These developments will be quite helpful for the Dutch cooperative housing movement. The two motions passed by the Dutch Parliament are:

1. The government is asked to remove provisions in the Housing Act and other legislation which obstruct the realization of cooperative housing.
2. The government is asked to provide funds for organizations that support housing cooperatives such as Cooplink.

In addition, the four coalition parties plus one party from the opposition passed an amendment to the Housing Budget resulting in the Minister of Housing making ten million Euros available for a revolving fund.

Cooplink is hopeful that it can achieve a significant multiplier effect and an initial meeting with banks and the ministry is planned before Christmas.

You can read more about the parliamentary motions on Cooplink’s website.