Natural gas free good idea but…

Research by the PBL (Plan Bureau for the Living Environment), published on August 27, 2024, indicates that citizens need to be much more involved in developing neighborhood sustainability plans.

Collaboration instead of top-down
Choices that municipalities make when drawing up neighborhood sustainability plans, influence citizens' appreciation of these plans. If the municipality draws up the sustainability plan for the neighborhood and only informs citizens when it is almost complete, a plan is considered less legitimate and lacks the necessary commitment.

Residents as partners in Neighborhood Planning
The appreciation of a neighborhood sustainability plan increases when residents are asked for their opinion during the preparation of the plan, or if residents are drawing up the plan themselves with the help of the municipality. Citizens find it important that their opinions as residents are heard and equally valued as expert opinions. 

The position of municipalities
Municipalities promise to play an active role in supporting and facilitating the sustainability of homes for their residents. However, in practice this turns out to be a complex task. For example, we learn from research into neighborhood planning that: 'Municipalities have little influence on affordability and fair cost distribution in the natural gas-free policy. They cannot prevent cost differences between neighborhoods, and they cannot provide guarantees for heat prices in the future.' This presupposes the major challenges that municipalities face in implementing the energy transition.

Bottom-up with Cuby!
Cuby is the source of information for the bottom-up approach that supports citizens' initiatives in making their own sustainability plans for the neighborhood in consultation with the municipality. In our opinion, neighborhood sustainability planning goes further than just making the neighborhood natural gas-free. It also includes other themes that make the district future-proof, such as climate mitigation, grid congestion and energy affordability.

We achieve this with Cuby by:

1. Actively participate in the bottom-up approach, so that everyone is involved in the development of the neighborhood sustainability plan.
2. Making all information available that is needed to make a joint decision.
3. Providing insight into technical solutions and associated costs and revenues.

Together we are building a future-proof and sustainable neighborhood in which everyone is heard and involved.

Would you like to know more about this?

Please contact Aart van der Vlist, aart@sblc.nl