New cabinet to postpone decisions on mortgages, pensions

Thursday 01 February 2007

The new cabinet wants to ask former prime ministers Ruud Lubbers and Wim Kok to head two committees which would look into the housing market and the financing of pensions.

The news has been leaked by the regional GPD newspapers which have managed to get hold of parts of the draft coalition agreement currently being worked on by the three parties forming the new government.

According to the GPD, one committee would examine the housing market focussing on the consequences of scrapping mortgage interest relief while the other would look into how an increasingly greying population would pay for pensions. No extra budget has been allocated for the two committees.

According to BNR Nieuwsradio commentator Sander Ottes the committees are just a way of pushing the problems facing the coalition partners into the future – the two committees would have 18 months to come up with their conclusions.

Ottes says the 40-page coalition agreement, which is due to be completed shortly, only sets out the general direction in which the new government wants to head rather than giving concrete solutions to specific problems.

© DutchNews.nl

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