Implementation of habitat policies is lagging behind. As a result, urgent problems are not being solved. The Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (Rli) therefore calls on the government to strike a much better balance between policy development and implementation practice. The Rli does so in its advisory report 'The ball is in the court of implementation'.
The Hague policy world structurally pays too little attention to implementation practice. As a result, tasks in the physical environment, such as building large numbers of dwellings, are insufficiently realized in the Netherlands. The Rli advocates making much better use of insights from implementation practice when designing policy measures. Equalizing policy and implementation and actually implementing policy intentions will contribute to public trust in government.
Executable
Implementers must be able to indicate in time whether policies are feasible. Government implementing organizations can do that if they are routinely involved in consultations of senior civil servants at all departments. This is far from always the case now. The council also sees an important role for the secretary-general of each policy department. He must ensure that other parties that contribute to implementation are also involved in policy development at an early stage.
The council further calls attention to municipalities, provinces and water boards that have to carry out many government tasks. They must be prevented from being given implementation tasks without adequate financing. Because many tasks must be brought to a solution in our country's regions, it is important that the Minister of the Interior strengthen administrative cooperation at the regional level.
'Professionalize'
Implementation often does not get off the ground because it is not clear who exactly should make the substantive choices and distribute the budgets. It is crucial that policy makers and implementers make clear agreements on this for each issue.
Agreements must also be made about the culture of cooperation. Trust and transparency must be central to this, so that dilemmas, doubts and uncertainties can be brought to the table unhindered. It is important that parties feel safe enough, even when things get tense, to look for solutions to problems in implementation and make difficult decisions.
'Deal smartly with scarcity of manpower'
The scarcity of labor is structural for the time being and therefore unavoidable. Pooling experts and (regional) sharing of knowledge and experts can offer a solution. Many activities can also be standardized so that there is no need to reinvent the wheel everywhere.
