Eindhoven is going to invest an additional €16 million in the coming year. The money will go into planting extra trees in the city, speeding up the construction of homes. They plan to invest in new district libraries.
This is clear from the municipal budget 2020. City councilor for Finance Marcel Oosterveer presented the plan on Thursday afternoon.
When the current city administration took office in 2018, the municipality was facing huge financial deficits. They succeeded in removing those deficits. The city once again has a “filled piggy bank. In the past year, the Municipality has saved an additional € 39 million. They are investing it now.
Responding to city growth
With additional investments, the mayor and the city councilor want to focus on the growth of the city. People are living in closely populated areas because of such growth. So more green areas must be built. This is to ensure that the living enviornment remains good. There will also many new constructions over the next twenty years. Many people are urgently looking for a home. The city is allocating over € 2 million euros to accelerate the building production.
The city council is also looking for new places to build houses. One of the ideas is to run high voltage lines underground. Eindhoven is setting aside €5 million euros to investigate this extensively.
Libraries in the district
Also, the city wants to invest in neighborhood libraries. An independent commission explained that small libraries can contribute to the reduction of low literacy. It will create meeting places for people. This is going to fight loneliness. Some funds will be set aside for this next year.
Safety
Furthermore, more money is going to be invested in tackling security and organized crime. The municipality is reserving extra money to combat subversion, such as in Woensel-Zuid.
Rising Housing costs
With all these investments, still, the Eindhoven homeowners will have to dig deeper into their pockets. Starting next year, the housing costs will increase by more than 5%. This will bring around € 5.5 million euros extra to the city.
Source: www.studio040.nl
Translation: Chaitali Sengupta. She also gives online INBURGERING classes.
