The National Cost Guidelines (Werkwijzer Nationale Kosten) of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) provides recommendations for national cost balance calculations. The purpose of the Guidelines is to encourage consistency and transparency in national cost balance calculations. The drafting of the Guidelines has been outsourced to CE Delft, under the guidance of PBL.
The recommendations and regulations contained in the Guidelines are in the nature of ‘comply or explain’. In other words: the Guidelines are the starting point for concrete calculations, but they can be deviated from for a clear and substantiated reason.
In practice, the application of these Guidelines ‘1.0’ may lead to future refinement or additions to the recommendations and regulations.