It was announced with much fanfare over a year ago: the business community is putting a considerable amount of money into an accessibility fund for the region via the Brainport deal. In addition, it has been recently publicised that more capital will be used to deal with major social problems: a housing fund, a social fund and a talent acquisition fund.
Studio040 made an overview of how things stand with three of the four funds, and what has become clear in the meantime. Because little is known about the fund for talent acquisition, that fund is not included in the overview.
Accessibility fund
The fund that is furthest along in its development and about which the most is known is the accessibility fund. The business community is contributing some 190 million euros as part of the Brainport deal for which the national government contributed more than 996 million euros and the province of North Brabant and the Municipality of Eindhoven are also jointly contributing some 347 million euros.
The money from the companies is an investment contribution. The companies’ contributions are managed by the Eindhoven municipality, in the sense that the companies do not determine which projects the money goes to: that decision is made by the authorities involved.
The construction of high quality public transport (HOV4), the multimodal node Eindhoven Central – which includes the underground bus station – and short-term arrangements for mobility transition are possible destinations for the accessibility fund.
Housing fund
Second, a housing fund is on the way – there was also a lot of demand for this from local polticians. That fund is likely to be structured differently from the accessibility fund. Whereas the first fund is an investment contribution from the business community for infrastructure projects in the region, the housing fund will look at resolvability: the possibility of participating companies getting their investment back over time.
Either way, the first step is to see what setup of the housing fund is best. The following are considered: contributions to social components of housing projects and guarantees for buyers and builders. Eindhoven expects to finalise the fund this year.
Social fund
Finally, there is the “Brainport for each other fund in which companies work together with regional governments, knowledge institutions and social institutions to strengthen broad prosperity and combat the division in society.
Mayor Jeroen Dijsselbloem let it be known at the beginning of the year that he was pleased with the development of the social fund, where nearly 2,700 corporate volunteers are said to have joined over the past year. The fund is said to have some 60 participants, all of whom contribute financially. How large their contributions are is not yet clear.
‘Brainport for each other’ is committed to combating problems such as low literacy and unemployment. There is also a financially fit programme that helps people stay out of debt. Many other programmes – for example, a fund broker who matches funds from the business community with social organisations in need of money – are still starting up. However, what can be expected from the social fund in the long term is not entirely clear.
Source: Studio040
Translator: Martijn
