Previous annual reports
Annual Report 2023: Zoetermeer achieves nice result
The 2023 Annual Reports of Municipality of Zoetermeer have been published. Municipality of Zoetermeer achieved great results in 2023. Alderman Iedema: "With 'Doing what it takes together' and the vision Zoetermeer 2040 in hand, the city worked hard. This was not without setbacks. Despite the setbacks, Zoetermeer has still managed to achieve a great deal. Always with the continuous striving to make Zoetermeer even more beautiful and attractive."
For 2023, the account result was about € 10 mln positive. That is ca. € 20 mln less than in 2022. This is in line with the objective of practical budgeting. The budget of the municipality of Zoetermeer thus remains balanced, despite a setback in the youth aid budget. The expectation of the Zoetermeer municipality is that a balanced budget can also be achieved in the coming years without major changes. The Zoetermeer City Council points out that, as in recent years, budgets will have to be budgeted for "with your hands behind your back. The financial cliff of 2026 keeps Zoetermeer from drawing up a multi-year budget without restrictions. "If the central government's intention to redesign the Municipal Fund does not change this will lead to difficult choices in the short term."
The 2023 Annual Reports are available through a digital portal:
2022 Annual Accounts: Positive result but concerns remain
The challenges were not mild in 2022. The board put its shoulders to the wheel together and did what was necessary. And that was to continue working on making Zoetermeer more beautiful, despite the new problems that came our way.
We are closing 2022 with a 'positive' account result of €30.3 million. That sounds good, but this is temporary and not structural in nature. The government offers more financial scope in the short term through additional incidental contributions, but the challenge of delivering a balanced budget every year is still undiminished.
2021 Annual Accounts: Pressure on finances remains high
We are closing 2021 with a 'positive' account result of € 15.3 million. But that is positive in quotation marks, because this result gives a distorted picture. Due to Covid-19, we were unable to implement all plans. This means that they will be postponed to 2022. For example, fewer calls were made on loan assistance, less use was made of the ZoetermeerPas and some events could not go ahead. Moreover, at the end of the year it turned out that the government's contribution for Covid-19, among other things, was much higher than expected. However, that compensation is only a one-off, which means that the challenge of delivering a balanced budget every year has not become any smaller. And the pressure on finances remains high.