Ministers have reached an agreement on next year’s spending plans and will now discuss their decisions with the leaders of the four coalition parties, prime minister Dick Schoof told reporters on Wednesday.

“We are almost done,” Schoof said after the morning’s negotiatons at his official residence in The Hague.

The four parties that make up the right-wing government set out their broad plans in a coalition agreement. But the details – how the policies are to be achieved – were left up to the ministers. None of the four party leaders are part of the cabinet.

On Friday ministers will put the final touches to the documents before sending them to the Council of State for its assessment. The budget will be published on September 17, the traditional third Tuesday.

There have been few leaks so far. According to the Telegraaf, ministers have mooted introducing a new, lower tax band to boost minimum incomes. The coalition agreement does include a pledge to cut taxes by €2 billion but did not go into details.

The agreement also included an additional €1 billion for spending on boosting residential construction, again without concrete details.

Migration minister Marjolein Faber has also said the government plans to declare an “asylum crisis”, although Schoof has tempered that expectation.

Finance minister Eelco Heinen said earlier this month he would be taking a tough line on additional spending.  “Every setback will have to be covered and I am going to keep colleagues to that,” he said.

Some problems are already known. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that people who had paid too much in asset tax – because the government used an assumed increase not actual figures – should be compensated. The total bill could be as high as €4 billion.

The failure to sell the German energy grid owned by Dutch state-owned grid operator Tennet is another setback that will impact the government’s finances.