Euregion
I had a wonderful childhood here, playing everywhere and building huts with my friends from the village. But we were also always aware that it doesn’t come free. My mother landscaped all the gardens herself; we had no landscape architect. My father was also always busy with the fruit farm and forestry, and later running a riding school and breeding horses. Always busy and always worrying about the next leak. But every time I come here, I also see how beautiful and unique it is.” Benefits and burdens Clearly, one doesn’t get into castles for the money - passion for cultural heritage is just as important. In addition to their cultural and societal value, however, historical estates do have economic value as well. “The presence of these historical estates doesn’t only cost the government money; it also generates money”, says De Jong. “I’m not just talking about income from recreation and tourism. Research in the Netherlands shows that the property value of homes and other real estate in the vicinity of a historical state is 15% higher than the average. And that in turn has consequences for the government’s revenue from property taxes. Our research shows that you need about € 5 million per year to conserve
the 50 or so historical estates in Limburg. Since this is an investment that the government also benefits from, why not use part of the revenue to compensate for some of the conservation costs? But that’s not what happens. Instead, owners are punished with higher property taxes and all sorts of fees. It seems to me at the very least an unfair distribution of the benefits and burdens. Many people profit from the presence of a historical estate local residents, tourists and the authorities - but few contribute to its maintenance and conservation.”
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“If you want to do a particular restoration you have to apply for a permit. That costs money, of course, and you also have to pay for all sorts of expensive study reports. There are grants that cover some of these costs, but all they do in effect is help you keep pumping money around”, explains De Loë. “And this whole circus of pumping money around just results in wasted money”, adds De Jong. “You’re better off lowering the property value, the fees and the VAT rate for maintenance, and ensuring that as much as possible of the available money goes directly towards the conservation costs.”
Continuity of policy So what does the Province plan to do with the recommendations made by De Jong and his team? “Our report was well received by the Province, and Noël Lebens from the Provincial Executive is keen to find out which of the recommendations can be adopted. He wants to figure out how we can put a stop to the adverse effects of the decentralisation of policy implementation. The Province also wants to engage in dialogue with the owners and managers of historical estates to identify, now and in the future, what the problems are and how best to address them.” “Continuity of policy is a big problem”, says De Loë. “Every time we get a new coalition, hard-won schemes just fall to pieces again.” According to De Jong, “The best guarantee is therefore to ensure that the owners are not dependent on grants - and thus on politics - but rather that their properties are self-sustaining.”
The report ‘Conservation of historical estates in Limburg: A comparative study of the Netherlands, Flanders and Germany’ (in Dutch), by Francis Carpentier, Rebecca Hollewijn, Joop de Jong and Marion Plieger, can be requested via j.dejong@maastrichtuniversity.nl.