What changes?
The Environment and Planning Act (Omgevingswet) embodies several acts. It is set up to make it easier to test building projects on all necessary aspects. The new Act consists of 26 existing acts around built environment, housing, infrastructure, environment, nature, and water (formerly Environmental Permitting Act or Omgevingsrecht).
The advantages are:
- faster and cheaper decision-making
- better solutions to social challenges
- more transparent decision-making for initiators and beneficiaries
- simplification of the rules. The Act follows European directives on the environment, unnecessary legislation has been scrapped
- more flexibility and a better fit to the actual situation
Examples of existing laws that will be incorporated in this new act are the Water Act, the Crisis and Recovery Act, and the Spatial Planning Act.
For whom?
- all companies
When?
The Environment and Planning Act is expected to come into force on 1 January 2024.
Please note: The effective date of this measure is not yet final. Entry into force is subject to its passing through the upper and lower houses of parliament or proclamation of the Order in Council (Algemene Maatregel van Bestuur, AMvB) or ministerial decree and publication in the Staatsblad or Staatscourant (Government Gazette, in Dutch).
