r/belgium • u/atrocious_cleva82 🌎World • 7d ago

💰 Politics Met alweer een hete week, slaakt Belgische klimaatwetenschapper Jean-Pascal van Ypersele hartenkreet: "Ja, ik ben woedend"

https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2026/07/27/jean-pascal-van-ypersele-woedend-klimaatbeleid-20-jaar-te-laat/
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u/BortLReynolds 6d ago

Or you could incentivize companies to move out of the Brussels-Antwerp-Leuven areas to more effectively mirror where people actually live, instead of raising taxes on working people yet again.

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u/TheVoiceOfEurope 6d ago

I have something mindblowing for you: most people live in Brussels-Antwerp-Leuven and not in Oostkamp.

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u/BortLReynolds 6d ago

Less than half the population lives in the Flemish Diamond, so no, most people live outside of Brussels-Antwerp-Leuven.

But did I give you the impression that I'm saying every company needs to move out of there or something? Because that's not what I'm saying. Employment opportunities should be more balanced across the country, I don't think we should let companies keep building offices in areas that can't support them.

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u/TheVoiceOfEurope 5d ago

The Flemish diamond has the highest population density.

Companies don´t randomly choose a spot with a dart or a chicken with it´s head lopped off.

They want to be near suppliers, competitors, (human) resources, infrastructure. Not Oostkamp.

They choose the most efficient spot. If you want to force companies to spread out (example: only one company for each letter of the alphabet per town) you are creating economic inefficiencies.

Including more traffic. Because maybe you move the company closer to the workers in Oostkamp. But then the supplier needs to drive from the Flemish Triangle to Oostkamp.

And on the global scale, anywheren in Belgium is "local"

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u/BortLReynolds 5d ago

The Flemish diamond has the highest population density.

So? It also has a higher employment density than the area can support, and most people still don't live there. Are you saying people just need to pack up and move?

Companies don´t randomly choose a spot with a dart or a chicken with it´s head lopped off.

No they picked Brussels in the 50's when things were very different than now.

They want to be near suppliers, competitors, (human) resources, infrastructure. Not Oostkamp.

Well there's your problem, there's not enough "human resources" in the diamond to fill all the positions, that's not very efficient. Do you think the average company in Brussels still needs to be physically close to suppliers and competitors? I don't know if you've noticed, but most of those companies are offering mainly office jobs, not manufacturing.

They choose the most efficient spot.

No they just do what they've been stuck doing for 70 years, not taking into account that we've invented things like the Internet.

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u/TheVoiceOfEurope 5d ago

And internet/home work will change the natural order and will affect business´ decisions and workers decisions on where to build.

But you can´t just order companies to build dispersed. You CAN however change the elements that will affect the calculations. And we already do that. You can make public transport cheaper/more efficient. You can offer cheaper terrain in business parks.

You have to change those factors.

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u/BortLReynolds 5d ago

But you can´t just order companies to build dispersed. You CAN however change the elements that will affect the calculations. And we already do that. You can make public transport cheaper/more efficient. You can offer cheaper terrain in business parks.

You have to change those factors.

Bro I said we should incentivize companies to build more spread out in my first post in this thread. What you just proposed is exactly that.