New firms in former farms. A process with two faces

The process of re-use is partly endogenous because the farmers and their successors replace agricultural activities with new economic activities (46 percent of the re-users are former farmers). Important factors in the choice of these entrepreneurs are factors derived from the classic location theories such as availability of space and accessibility. This development is also partly exogenous; pressure is increasing since urban entrepreneurs are attracted by the rural idyll (56 percent of the re-users are ‘new’ entrepreneurs, originating from somewhere else). Besides factors derived from classic location theories, these entrepreneurs take residential and environmental factors into account, such as scenery and detached housing.

As a result of a combination of these endogenous and exogenous forces, many former agricultural buildings are re-used as a dwelling and/or business accommodation. Since re-use of former agricultural buildings results from individual behaviour (farmers, new entrepreneurs and inhabitants), it is an autonomous development that is difficult to control by the government. Although the national government recently relaxed the regulations concerning re-use of former agricultural buildings, the municipalities have still not adapted their regulations to the phenomenon of re-use.

Lack of civil servants and knowledge of the problems related to new functions among agricultural activities hinder municipalities in enforcing policy on this matter. In doing so, municipalities miss the chance to fully benefit from current rural dynamics. Although there are negligibly changes in land use, the authors’ research shows how entrepreneurs contribute to rural dynamics by reusing redundant agricultural buildings. In the case of municipalities generating an active policy on the matter of re-use (aiming at stimulating the benefits and repressing negative impacts of re-use), we presume that more entrepreneurs might find the incentives to start new economic activities and thereby revitalise rural economies in the Netherlands.