THE HAGUE, 30/06/09 - Local authorities are to be given more powers to offer rental accommodation only to particular groups of people, the cabinet has decided.

The public housing corporations, which largely control the rental market, are already allowed to impose income conditions for certain housing; those earning too much are not eligible for a small apartment. There are also age criteria for certain blocks of flats; only people aged below 35 or above 55, for example, can move into them.

Via an amendment to the Housing Act, municipalities will however in future be allowed to use other criteria in allocating cheap housing as well. They can use these to try to give districts their own character, for example by putting "peaceful people with peaceful people" or by encouraging ethnic diversity, according to the Housing Ministry.

Municipalities will be more restricted from keeping people living in other municipalities out of their own rental market. While they can continue to demand that people have "economic and social ties" with the municipality, they can only do so if the waiting lists are so long that their own residents already have scarcely any chance of getting a different home.