The boxes in Venlo and the XXL box issue of The Hague


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by Jan van den Hogen

Head of Tenant Relationship Management Logistics Deka Immobilien GmbH

 

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Through the College of Government Advisors political The Hague has conjured up yet another favourite topic. They refer to it as the XXL Box Issue (“verdozing”) of the Netherlands. After their complete failure regarding the housing dossier, as well as the sustainability objectives based on the climate agreements, or maintaining the economic development in the Netherlands, or countering the undermining of the care market (just to mention a few examples), The Hague finally developed a new dossier to unnoticeably distract attention from all other unsolved dossiers.

If you follow the debate on this topic, the first thing you notice is the political naiveté. Everything that the aforementioned College has published proves the lack of an elementary knowledge in respect of area development, town and country planning, as well as an economic purpose and need of the logistics sector. Thankfully, and obviously again at the expense of the community, they engaged an extensive group of external advisors who presented some lovely reports with, unfortunately, very few concrete recommendations, apart from the fact that they obviously all feel that the College is right. Well, I suppose that all those consultants are familiar with the tale of senator Titus Rufus, who dared to argue with Emperor Caligula that his rulings were bad for the trade and bad for the enterprise existence.

What is it all about? The College expressed its great concern (which is political jargon for establishing yet another discussion group/advisory committee) regarding the increase of huge box-like buildings in the landscape, or; are we going to ruin the economy, which will need years to overcome the consequences of the Corona pandemic anyhow, even further?

As is the case in every political debate, what is totally missing in the discussion is the awareness of how man and society are intertwined, how the economy functions and how trends develop in society.

Contrary to the business world, which is very well engaged in future trends and themes in economic terms, political The Hague still thinks that such a thing as a makeable society actually exists. Now what was the story again with the multicultural society, housing for the elderly and the asylum policy?

The box issue, which the government obviously considers a problem but the citizens and business world consider a necessity for the functioning of society, should not be marked by politics as a problem area, but as an irreversible trend in a consumption-oriented society of which we all form part. The fact is that our consumption has increased and that we order more and more online, and that we want to have it all at our homes quicker, easier and without hassle, queues and grumpy cashiers in the stores.

Storage, distribution and delivery processes are inextricably linked to this trend. After all, without logistics the world would come to a standstill.

Now if the politicians would ask themselves where that carton of milk and the croissant for breakfast come from, how on earth it’s possible that the tight dark blue suits and fancy woman’s suits can be delivered within 24 hours and the new X-Box for the kids is at their front door in no time at all, they would finally be acting smartly and understand the importance of this sector and its associated buildings. No, instead of that political The Hague indulges in navel-gazing while trying to distract the attention of the electorate from the one thing that really is important; the economy, the economy and, once again, the economy.
Big and increasingly bigger logistics buildings is a trend that is the simple result of social developments. Putting a stop to it means to block the citizen in his perception and the way in which he wants to organise his life, and to, for the umpteenth time, cause an economic loss by a failing insight and policy.

Does political The Hague have any clue as to how the face masks and, at a later stage, the corona vaccines, which we will be needing millions and millions of, will be stored and delivered? It won’t be via Santa Claus and his reindeer but rather the transport companies working day and night because society is in dire need of their services.

The argument is clear; they will never be able to build enough logistics parks to meet increasing consumer demands and changing social trends.

In short, more boxes in Venlo and it would certainly help if political The Hague would view the connection between man, society and economy from a more practical perspective. And I’m sure they could drum up a number of consultants for that as well. Great new discussion group; ‘sorry’ advisory committee.

Jan van den Hogen
Tenant Relationship Manager Logistic Global, Deka Immobilien
Board member Holland Property Plaza

 

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