Sustainable business locations are an important basis for the Dutch business climate. Moreover, business parks can act as catalysts for sustainability. A major obstacle to making business parks more sustainable is the lack of organisation. The Business Investment Zones Act (Wet BIZ) provides an instrument for entrepreneurs and municipalities to strengthen organisational power and make joint investments. After sufficient support for implementation is proven, a municipality collects a so-called BIZ contribution from the entrepreneurs in the BI zone for a period of five years. The proceeds are returned to the contributing entrepreneurs. They use it for joint activities to improve the quality, safety or economic development of the area.
Commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, the Erasmus Study Centre for Local Government Taxes (ESBL) investigated the functioning of business investment zones (BI zones) in business parks in collaboration with Cees Jan Pen, Professor of Regional Economics at Fontys University of Applied Sciences. It was studied if and to what extent, BI zones can contribute to strengthening the organisational strength on and sustainability of business parks. At the end of October last year, the Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (Rli) issued an advisory report entitled: "Working together: choosing future-proof business parks". This was followed by a response from the Cabinet in a letter to the House of Representatives on 28 March 2024. The ESBL/Fontys report was offered as an annex to that letter. In the Cabinet’s response, the Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate writes the following about the ESBL/Fontys report:
"Furthermore, I have investigated whether the BIZ (a Business Investment Zone) is a good and attractive instrument for making business parks more sustainable and strengthening organisational capacity. The enclosed study shows that this is possible."
The researchers conclude that the BIZ regulation is not suitable for realising societal objectives where the initiative and main interest in achieving them lies with the government. For example, for the joint financing of a solar park on a business park, the BIZ is not suitable. This requires other types of instruments where the government acts in a more obligatory way. However, the BIZ regulation is the only specific legal and nationwide regulation that facilitates municipalities and entrepreneurs to make periodic agreements on improving the liveability, safety, spatial quality and economic development of a business park. Moreover, this study shows that the BIZ instrument leads to strengthening the organisational power of a business park and the BIZ can be a stepping stone for achieving sustainability ambition. The researchers make several recommendations to improve the BIZ instrument specifically for business parks.
- More information
Read the report: 'Investing in the organisational capacity and sustainability of business parks using business investment zones' here.
Also, read the report published by ESBL in 2023: 'Room for ambition of business investment zones', which examined the functioning of BI zones in shopping and city centre areas.