'More houses in the countryside thanks to agriculture'

If it is up to Lodewijk Asscher, leader of the Labor Party (PvdA), the housing shortage will not be solved by so-called 'infill' in cities. Building in a green environment is cheaper, legally simpler and less time consuming.

The party makes housing policy an important spearhead in the election program that will be presented next week. On Sunday evening (October 25) Asscher sat at the table at the TV program Buitenhof† There, interviewer Pieter Jan Hagens listed the disadvantages of infill in cities.

Asscher responded by saying that conversion of office buildings into homes will also contribute to solving the housing shortage, but that agricultural land will become available because of the sustainability of livestock farming. "Investors wait for each other. You should not leave this to market forces. It is precisely now that the government has to step in."

Also the Groene Hart farmland
When asked whether the PvdA is also in favor of housing construction in the meadows of the Groene Hart, Asscher said: "I am not prepared to sacrifice nature, because we have very little nature in this country. There is agricultural land available in North America. and South Holland. People want space to recreate and walk in the greenery instead of in the gray buildings in the inner cities."

Earlier this year, together with the left-wing parties GroenLinks and SP, Member of Parliament Henk Nijboer of the PvdA emphasized how important the housing shortage is for the socialists. He did this by jointly advocating a multi-billion dollar fund for social housing, which would reduce the housing shortage and increase employment in construction.

Asscher's statements make clear what the agricultural sector can expect if left-wing parties can take power after the elections on March 17 next year. Unlike GroenLinks and SP, the PvdA has not yet presented the election program, but given the position taken during debates in the House of Representatives, it is not obvious that the party will place different accents than GroenLinks and the SP.

Limit agricultural exports
In the period when the Groningen organic farmer Harm Evert Waalkens was still the spokesperson for agriculture in the House of Representatives and the social democrats took part in government as an important political factor, the PvdA never cooperated in motions by left-wing parties to reduce livestock numbers. But that time has passed. Now the left-wing parties outbid each other mainly to see who wants to shrink the herd the most.

For these parties, making the agricultural sector more sustainable means circular agriculture that limits agricultural exports, that stimulates the import of agricultural raw materials and vegetable protein production, that levies a tax on meat sales and that limits scaling up and nature-inclusive agriculture rewarded with EU agricultural subsidies, on top of that a fair price for sustainable food.

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