Local Government and the Decentralisation of Urban Regeneration Policies in The Netherlands

Abstract

In The Netherlands, national urban regeneration policies are undergoing a radical process of decentralisation. Many major national funds are concentrated in an Investment Budget for Urban Regeneration (IUR) and are decentralised to 30 major cities and the 12 provinces for the smaller municipalities. Establishing the IUR is seen as an important precondition for regeneration policies in the Dutch context. The paper discusses the capacity of local government to be the central government agent for the urban regeneration policies being promoted by the IUR. Decentralising urban regeneration policies involves more than decentralising the budget. The domain of local government must have sufficient capacity to engage in the policies decentralised by national government.

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“…The national government guarantees the repayment of loans to local governments. The government-owned bank (BNG), which issues the loans, has AAA status, as it has never lost a loan to municipalities (Korthals Altes, 2002). General and specific grants from the national government comprise more than 80% of the funds for municipal budgets.…”

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“…: 24), not solely through the power of government or other authority, but also through the use of new tools and techniques for steering and guiding the necessary processes. This capacity has different dimensions (Korthals Altes, 2002). The financial or fiscal dimension is addressed by Miller (2007) in relation to the downloading of responsibilities without the provision of adequate financial means to carry them out.…”

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