Calls from a high-powered government commission to merge the four Randstad provinces into a single entity can count on little support from the likely next cabinet, the Financieele Dagblad reports. The committee, under the leadership of former prime minister Wim Kok, called for the provinces of Noord and Zuid Holland, Utrecht and Flevoland to be combined into a massive Randstad province.

The commission said the current structure was cumbersome. Decision-making took far too long because so many provinces were involved in, say, building a new road. ‘There is not one institution which represents the whole area,’ Kok said. ‘That is a serious shortfall. There are joint discussion forums but they are often make things more complicated and cause delays.’
The Christian Democrats said they were ‘cautious’ when it came to restructuring provincial government. ‘We only want to change the structure if there is support for the move, and I don’t see that yet,’ spokeswoman Liesbeth Spies told the Volkskrant.
‘We would first need to assess the implications for the rest of the country and what it would mean for the relationship with national government,’ said PvdA (Labour) spokesman Frans Timmermans.
The CDA, PvdA and ChristenUnie are currently in talks on forming a new government.