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Five Housing and urban renewal in the Netherlands

Abstract

Housing shortage was for many years one of the top issues in the Netherlands and 80 per cent of the present housing stock has been built since the Second World War. Contemporary urban renewal has focused on deprived areas from the 1950s and 1960s where there are many multi-family dwellings in the social rented sector. Large-scale slum clearance and redevelopment ended in the early 1970s and the focus switched to small-scale renewal, renovating old houses in old neighbourhoods, with residents’ participation. In major projects from the 1990s onwards, an integrated policy was developed, in which the involvement of local people and greater responsibility for local government as mediator were important. A ‘big city policy’ from the mid-1990s targeted renewal in the country’s largest towns and cities. The national government’s financial contribution to this programme ended in 2014, suggesting that housing renewal is now at a crossroads. With the economic crisis, renewal projects are being slowed down, frozen, delayed, reconsidered, or cancelled. The consequences of this are questioned in the light of a situation from which the national government seems intent on withdrawing.

Abstract

Housing shortage was for many years one of the top issues in the Netherlands and 80 per cent of the present housing stock has been built since the Second World War. Contemporary urban renewal has focused on deprived areas from the 1950s and 1960s where there are many multi-family dwellings in the social rented sector. Large-scale slum clearance and redevelopment ended in the early 1970s and the focus switched to small-scale renewal, renovating old houses in old neighbourhoods, with residents’ participation. In major projects from the 1990s onwards, an integrated policy was developed, in which the involvement of local people and greater responsibility for local government as mediator were important. A ‘big city policy’ from the mid-1990s targeted renewal in the country’s largest towns and cities. The national government’s financial contribution to this programme ended in 2014, suggesting that housing renewal is now at a crossroads. With the economic crisis, renewal projects are being slowed down, frozen, delayed, reconsidered, or cancelled. The consequences of this are questioned in the light of a situation from which the national government seems intent on withdrawing.

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents iii
  3. List of figures, tables and boxes v
  4. Contributors ix
  5. Introduction 1
  6. From physical improvement to holistic renewal: the Danish experience 21
  7. Housing renewal in England 41
  8. Making new from old in France: urban change through housing renewal in two Parisian districts 75
  9. Housing and urban renewal in the Netherlands 97
  10. Estonia: learning through ‘societal experiment’ 123
  11. Housing and urban renewal: the case of Germany 143
  12. Housing renewal in Hungary: from socialist non-renovation through individual market actions to area-based public intervention 161
  13. From isolated programmes to an integrated approach: the case of La Barceloneta, Spain 187
  14. From squatter upgrading to large-scale renewal programmes: housing renewal in Turkey 215
  15. Changing approaches to policy making in housing renewal 245
  16. Conclusions 259
  17. References 275
  18. Index 307
Renewing Europe's Housing
This chapter is in the book Renewing Europe's Housing
https://doi.org/10.56687/9781447310136-007

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents iii
  3. List of figures, tables and boxes v
  4. Contributors ix
  5. Introduction 1
  6. From physical improvement to holistic renewal: the Danish experience 21
  7. Housing renewal in England 41
  8. Making new from old in France: urban change through housing renewal in two Parisian districts 75
  9. Housing and urban renewal in the Netherlands 97
  10. Estonia: learning through ‘societal experiment’ 123
  11. Housing and urban renewal: the case of Germany 143
  12. Housing renewal in Hungary: from socialist non-renovation through individual market actions to area-based public intervention 161
  13. From isolated programmes to an integrated approach: the case of La Barceloneta, Spain 187
  14. From squatter upgrading to large-scale renewal programmes: housing renewal in Turkey 215
  15. Changing approaches to policy making in housing renewal 245
  16. Conclusions 259
  17. References 275
  18. Index 307
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