Witteveen+Bos, Antea Group and Rho Adviseurs help province of Gelderland accelerate housing challenge

In 2023, Witteveen+Bos, together with Antea Group and Rho Adviseurs, started supporting consultancy and engineering services within the Province of Gelderland’s Housing Acceleration Team. After a successful first year, the province has extended the collaboration until the end of 2024. To that end, W+B, Antea Group and Rho Adviseurs have signed a collaboration agreement to anchor their partnership.

The three board of directors members of the contract partners, Eveline Buter (Witteveen+Bos), Tanja Lendzion (Antea Group) and Monique Lammens (Rho Adviseurs) signed the collaboration agreement yesterday at the Witteveen+Bos offices in Utrecht.

The province of Gelderland initiated the Housing Acceleration Team to help municipalities tackle housing challenges. In particular, the acceleration team focuses on large housing projects that are not getting off the ground or are moving too slowly.

Witteveen+Bos, Antea Group and Rho Adviseurs provide support with a wide range of services at all levels. This ranges from drawing up a vision and urban design plan, spatio-judicial rationale, questions regarding mobility and nitrogen to support in process and engagement and stakeholder management.

Collaboration with the province is set up so that the team can immediately start working on the case in response to a request for help without the need for a tender process. This way of organising contributes quite literally to accelerating the response to the housing challenge.

‘The housing shortage is severe’, says Gelderland provincial executive member Dirk Vreugdenhil. With the acceleration team, we are accelerating the construction of 45,000 homes in Gelderland. By working together with Witteveen+Bos, Antea Group and Rho Adviseurs, we can offer tailor-made solutions and prevent housing construction from grinding to a halt.’

As Witteveen+Bos Managing Director Eveline Buter explains, ‘The housing challenge is one of the urgent issues of the moment that will partly determine the future layout of the Netherlands. We within the acceleration team of the province of Gelderland are happy to contribute to this crucial challenge with our knowledge, expertise and capacity.’

As Antea Group Managing Director Tanja Lendzion says, ‘The housing challenge also requires effective collaboration if you really want to accelerate. Contributing and sharing knowledge with the partners you work with is indispensable. Together, you come up with real solutions that turn plans into successful projects.’

According to Rho Adviseurs Director Monique Lammens, ‘As an urban design firm, we know the language and way of thinking of the developing parties as well as the municipalities. Where housing developments delay in the planning process, we can contribute with our content knowledge and our process experience. It is very enjoyable to work together as consultancies and with the province of Gelderland within an acceleration team on this important task.’