Flemish government strikes deal to limit increase in built up surfaces
Flemish government parties have struck a deal to halt new concrete surfaces. The agreement means that in principle building will no longer be permitted on unbuilt sites. Fresh legislation will guarantee more compensation to property owners whose land occurs in a zone where building is no longer permitted. Flemish nationalist floor leader Wilfried Vandaele says that compensation to the tune of 100% of the outlay for a property will be granted.
Under the new legislation the authority that decides that construction is no longer permitted in a particular area, e.g. a municipal authority, will have to foot the largest bill for compensation. But that’s not the whole story. Landowners of land that is designated as farmland that see this land redesignated as building land will have to pay the government between 25% and 50% of the added value for their land created by this decision.
Housing reserve areas covering some 12,000 hectares are being placed in reserve till 2040. This is land that is held in reserve for housing at a later date, but which won’t be built on at present.
Wilfried Vandaele: “The plan is to stop the increase in built up areas and to ensure that part of the land that is currently covered in concrete and buildings will no longer be so.”