Advice Accommodation Policy from the Social Domain Advisory Council Nuenen c.a.April 13, 2021

At its April 8 meeting, the ASD discussed the Accommodation Policy Memorandum, which had been sent to us on April 2. In the public meeting, René Hamers, Annelies Beugelink (Bureau Louter) and Alderman Pernot were present for an explanation and for discussions with ASD members. At the request of the municipality, the ASD then discussed and formulated its advice under great time pressure. We will now limit ourselves to the main points.

Considerations

Nuenen can be proud of its relatively large and highly relevant contributions of volunteers and volunteer organizations for many activities in the fields of culture, education, nature experience, sports and leisure, among others. The municipality rightly facilitates, encourages and subsidizes these valuable activities. Making suitable accommodation available under certain Requirements for and (partially) subsidizing these activities is part of the tasks of the municipality. These very valuable activities, which help define Nuenen's core values, must be preserved.

However, the lack of an adequate accommodation policy in Nuenen has led to a proliferation of agreements and Requirements in recent years. There were apparently no clear and generic agreements and Requirements. As a result, there is now a wide variety of agreements, including who is responsible for what and the prices of the rent charged. Instead of a uniform policy, many agreements are customized. That is not a policy.
The system thus created is not transparent, it has led to unequal treatment of residents and associations, it is not prepared for the future and for the municipality it is not workable. This system is not sustainable. There is a very great urgency to formulate the accommodation policy more transparently and clearly so that the same rules will apply to everyone. Residents and municipality will then know better what to expect from each other now and in the coming years. In this area, the municipality is lagging behind other municipalities.

A transparent policy leads to uniform agreements. These will have effects on the associations. These must be given time to adapt to the changing arrangements. This could be realized within the term of the proposed accommodation policy 2021 - 2024. Then from 2025 Nuenen will have a transparent policy in which the same rules apply to everyone.

Urgency

The memo contains many good analyses, describes frameworks, clusters of accommodations and arrives at proposals. Establishing the content was done in consultation with stakeholders. It is a shortcoming that the urgency and need for policy change are less highlighted. This raises unjustified expectations that could again lead to problems during implementation.
The ASD lacks a good description of the need and urgency to adjust the current system and its possible consequences. Without additional budgets in time or money, a new policy will lead to a more transparent redistribution of municipal support.

Recommendation: Formulate that urgency more clearly. Continuing on the current path is unworkable for the congregation and it is unsustainable. Continuing to properly support essential old and new associations would be jeopardized. A new policy must avoid the pitfalls of the past.

Timeline and implications

A second point that the ASD misses is clarity that the phase-out from customization in the old agreements to general and transparent rules must be achieved in a finite time. Until then, general guidelines will continue to fall short.

Recommendation: Formulate a more explicit and less non-committal timeline. For example, that the old agreements gradually transition into the new policy. And that at the end of the term of this transitional policy, all the old specific agreements will have been replaced by the new transparent agreements that will be the same for everyone, within the same category.

Framework document or policy document

A framework document establishes the outline of the policy and sets the limits within which powers may be exercised. A policy document also indicates how it will be implemented and within what time frame. According to these definitions, the submitted document is a policy document, but it is not a policy note. The boundaries are clearly indicated, but it lacks translation into "what are we actually going to do in concrete terms and to what end.

Opinion: In addition to the approach and proposed measures mentioned in the paper, it is strongly recommended to be clearer in the consequences of the proposed policy change. These consequences are equal and predictable treatment of all, leading to a gradual redistribution of municipal support for accommodation among current associations within the limited term of the proposed policy.

Policy Review

The lack of an accommodations policy and its regular evaluation illustrates that undesirable developments are not identified or are identified too late. And when they are identified, it is unclear how the municipality can and should respond. A transparent policy reduces the likelihood of these undesirable developments.

Recommendation: Partly from a data-driven perspective, the policy paper should be structured in the following way:

• Outline the current situation, substantiated as much as possible with hard evidence such as figures. This is the reason to create/change policy. This should then also highlight the urgency/necessity to change.
• What do we want to achieve (for whom) with what goal.
• Under what Requirements Can We Act.
• What will we actually do, with the most SMART translation of the objectives into concrete action.

In this way, indicators/norm values can also be established with which the achievement of the objectives can be monitored (partly by means of figures) and it can be evaluated whether this actually changes the situation in the desired direction.

Social Domain Advisory Council Nuenen c.a.
P.P.J. van den Bosch.