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Zuidas only for rich residents

21 January 2006 – Minister Sybilla Dekker wants no social housing at the Zuidas location. Next Monday she will come to Amsterdam in order to explain her rent policy. Opponents are preparing a reception.

The minister thinks it is ‘madness’ to build affordable houses at the Zuidas. “Why should the government bring our money over there, when it is cheaper to build elsewhere?”, she says in an interview in Het Parool today.

The national government is to invest over 350 million euro in the Zuidas, but as far as the minister is concerned this money may only be used to serve those with substantial financial means.

The Zuidas is a popular location among businesses because of its proximity both to Schiphol Airport and to the city centre. The municipality wants the area to become a mixture of offices, cultural facilities and housing, including thirty percent social rent.

Dekker says in the interview that she was annoyed by a comment of Alderman Duco Stadig earlier this week. He warned that Dekker’s proposed rent policy will lead to segregation between rich and poor neighbourhoods. Dekker wants the economic value of houses to have a stronger impact on the rent price. This will make houses in popular neighbourhoods more expensive.

“The popular neighbourhoods will then be for people with high incomes, the unpopular ones for people with low incomes. This is contrary to the Amsterdam policy of the ‘undivided city’, in which the rich and the poor live among each other”, said the alderman.

Next Monday, Minister Dekker will come to Amsterdam to explain her policy at an expert meeting of the VVD party. The Stop the Destruction of Social Housing committee calls on opponents to receive her with flyers, banners and signs.

The meeting takes place at 18.00 hrs at the Bethaniënklooster, Barndesteeg 6B (near the Nieuwmarkt).

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