The jump into the dreaded abyss year 2026 seems to be less deep for Eindhoven than initially thought. According to alderman Maes van Lanschot, there are concerns, but the municipal budget looks good. “We are working on two tracks: the completion of this administrative period and investments in the long term.”
The anteroom of the 2026 budget states that Eindhoven can invest 16.8 million once and 17.3 million euros structurally. “Local taxes for residents will increase by 3.5 percent and those for companies by 6 percent,” says alderman Van Lanschot.
The financial puzzle of the municipality has been laid out in such a way that concerns about the dreaded abyss year – the year in which local governments often have to make major cutbacks – seem to be less than expected. According to Van Lanschot, this is partly due to the fact that less money is coming from The Hague to the municipalities via the Municipal Fund.
‘Disadvantageous municipality’
The central government wants to make cuts in this pot of money, but the municipality of Eindhoven will still receive compensation because they have been a so-called ‘disadvantage municipality’ for a long time. The city will receive 15 euros per resident in 2027 from this common pot, which amounts to around 3.8 million euros. Van Lanschot with a small reservation: “The expectation is that we will receive even more benefit in 2028 and 2029 and that the total will increase to 8 million euros.”
Big challenge
The alderman for Finance gave an explanation of the 2026 policy framework on Tuesday. It states that the city council can make a number of investments to complete current policy (there will be new elections next year) and to ensure it for the near future. But that it should also look ahead to major themes that already require investments with the growth of the city, such as climate and mobility. “The investment tasks for Eindhoven are simply large,” says Van Lanschot.
“As far as mobility is concerned, we are making financial sense,” says Van Lanschot. The municipality wants to save an additional 6 million euros per year for the drastic traffic plans. Half of this will be financed by the increase in parking costs. For this increase, the municipality is taking the average of the four large Dutch cities G4 and the five large Brabant cities B5. In total, the municipality expects that the increase in parking costs will yield around 7 million euros in additional community money.
For the climate, 3.2 million euros are being invested in the local energy company Eindhoven Energie, but 514,000 euros are also being invested in the realisation of a local hydrogen network. The fact that the municipality is investing in a local hydrogen network is new. Last month, this was only given as a direction of thought to Eindhoven politicians by civil servants.
Fire brigade
When it comes to finalising and safeguarding current policy, the board of mayor and aldermen will take a number of concrete measures this year. For example, it has been decided to structurally invest 2 million euros per year against the shortages at the fire brigade, 1.6 million euros will go to the management and maintenance of greenery in the city and the municipality has decided to continue the bed-bath-bread scheme for rejected asylum seekers itself, for which the price tag is 1.1 million euros. Pact Woensel Zuid and the Brainport Voor Elkaar foundation can count on 500,000 euros. The municipality of Eindhoven is investing 5.1 million euros in its own organisation .
The Eindhoven city council will decide on the policy framework on May 20.
Source: Studio040
For Eindhoven News: Lila Mehrez
