Due to rising energy bills, more and more municipalities have to help the entrepreneurs themselves. According to the Institute for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (IMK), around half of Dutch municipalities help needy SMEs in this way.
IMK makes its decision based on an estimation of its customers. The institute itself advises 135 municipalities with assistance programs for entrepreneurs. And we are not alone. That’s why we estimate that at least half of the municipalities offer help,’ says Michiel Hordijk, director of IMK.
The support of the municipalities comes before the support of the national government. Entrepreneurs whose energy bill accounts for a large part of the costs can count on compensation from the government. However, it will take a long time for entrepreneurs to receive the money in their account, which will not happen before April. SMEs now have to make up for that period by taking out expensive credit and loans.
Conditions for support from municipalities
Already during the corona period, it was the municipalities that had to come to the aid of the entrepreneur. An important difference from that time, however, is that the government made money available at that time and designed the guidelines for the aid. “That’s not the case now,” Hordijk points out. ‘Municipalities have to find a solution themselves and think individually about what the solution is for entrepreneurs in their municipalities. Sometimes they even have to find entrepreneurs themselves.’
Municipalities set the conditions for providing support, notes the director. ‘The money doesn’t go directly to paying the energy bill. The profitability of a company is checked and it is checked whether a company has gone into difficulty just because of that energy bill. It also examines whether the entrepreneur will be able to manage the energy bill in the future, for example by making it more sustainable.’
We need help from the government
Peter Heijkoop, chairman of the committee of the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) and councilor in Dordrecht, sees that the municipalities are having a harder time, because there is no clear measure from the government. ‘With a government scheme you have a generic measure. (…). Now we are trying to do it, but it is also noted that the measures come from the government late and therefore a lot of uncertainty arises’.
Heijkoop therefore sees that some municipalities can help, but others cannot. ‘You can see that the property tax, the approach to poverty, the approach to public space and the WMO differ locally. These big differences are actually due to our democratic system, where residents themselves choose their city councils.’
According to the councilor, offering local customization is the best way to help entrepreneurs as much as possible. ‘We try to set up robust, national schemes that apply to everyone. This should be the basis. If associations and organizations encounter problems locally, we can respond locally. But you want as much as possible to be regulated nationally, because that prevents legal inequality.’
Source: BNR
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