The government’s target of building 100,000 new homes a year will not be reached, the Netherlands construction sector said on Tuesday.

“We talk about emergency measures and an asylum crisis, but how big must the housing shortage be before we declare it an emergency?” Coen van Rooyen, director of WoningBouwersNL told the Telegraaf.  “The shortage is already 400,000 homes. When are we going to intervene? At 500,000 or 600,000?”

The campaign group wants the government to “turn off” several measures that allow residents and environmental groups to delay housing projects through formal protests and wants compensation if appeals are found to be groundless.

ABN Amro said in a report on Tuesday that permits have been granted for 110,000 homes that are not being built, partly because of the appeals process. That has led to the biggest number of bankruptcies in the construction sector since 2016, the bank’s economists said.

The builders’ lobby group also says the rule that two-thirds of new homes be classified as “affordable”, is causing problems because it is less attractive for investors to put money into property.

In the 1980s, affordable housing qualified for government subsidies of between €23 billion and €27 billion a year, “but that is now €1 billion,” Van Rooyen said.

The new government has indicated that it will look at cutting back on lengthy appeal procedures, in line with the previous administration’s strategy.