Civil servants have to leave the Randstad, more employment to the region: ‘Government feels far away’

According to Minister Hugo de Jonge (Home Affairs, CDA), the decision as to where which government service would be located was ‘far too often made with the calculator on my lap, where it is cheapest’. “As if efficiency is the only thing that matters.” As a result, 60 percent of all government officials currently work in North Holland, South Holland and Utrecht. “So of the more than 300,000 full-time jobs, about 200,000 are in the Randstad.”

The ‘interests of the region’ will therefore play a greater role in the decision about new locations for government services. “If possible, we should choose outside the Randstad,” says De Jonge.

Suppose the Ministry of Agriculture were to move, this would mainly have a highly symbolic character, the minister said when asked. “At the same time, symbolism is also important. Because if the central government is only present in The Hague, it feels far away. The other way around is just as true: reciprocity is incredibly important to continue to understand each other.”

Although moving the ministries in The Hague is ‘not the first thing’ that comes to De Jonge’s mind. “Most government employment is not departments. No, these are agencies, offices of the Tax Authorities or Rijkswaterstaat.”

There are about 160 of these government offices in total. Consider the Dutch Safety Board and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (now The Hague), the Central Bureau of Driving Licenses (Rijswijk), the Social Insurance Bank (Amstelveen), Rijkswaterstaat and the Education Inspectorate (Utrecht).

In the report published last year Every region counts! it was already concluded that ‘undesirable differences’ have arisen between and in the various regions in the Netherlands. The government focuses too much on the Randstad when making investments. The provinces outside this area feel left out, widening the gap between urban and rural areas.

Big differences

Those differences are too big, De Jonge also acknowledges. According to him, ‘years of choices’ have led to many more government jobs being found in the Randstad and far too few in provinces outside the Randstad. Employment there has also ‘increased much faster’. That was not necessary at all and must be done differently.”

De Jonge wants more people from the provinces on the edge of the country to work for the government. This way they can contribute their perspective when new policy is made, but the central government can also learn from them what is going on in other provinces. To achieve this, the national government must not only be visible in The Hague, but must be ‘close and visible’ everywhere.

The Minister of the Interior gets a bigger finger in the pie. Each minister remains responsible for the ‘distribution’ of his or her organization, but the Minister of the Interior will provide advice for each expansion of at least a hundred full-time jobs, in consultation with provinces: how can the region benefit from that employment? De Jonge: “Then the minister can say, for example: take a look at Assen.”

Whether there are enough suitable employees in a particular region is not decisive. If there are not enough qualified personnel available, you can work remotely after the move. In order to subsequently find people, the government agency can ‘actively recruit’ schools among graduating young people in those provinces.