The Modern Cities Programme in Hungarian urban development

Abstract

In 2015, the Hungarian government launched a major urban development project package called Modern Cities Programme. The mayors of the 23 cities with county rights agreed on the projects in separate meetings with the head of government between 2015 and 2017. The total budget of the programme is about HUF 3400 billion, and according to the government's plans, the developments will be completed by 2022. The development programme was analysed in terms of its contribution to European and national spatial development policy, its impact on the central budget and sources of local government, its contribution to economic development and reindustrialisation, and its suitability as a blueprint for a new urban development regime.

On the basis of the research results, it can be said that in the last century of Hungarian spatial development there is no urban development programme whose philosophy and budget volume is comparable to that of Modern Cities. Similar project characteristics were only found in the French state-directed programmes that emerged in the 1960s. They are still widely found today because they are very similar as to their instruments and methods, such as the system of design contracts, the importance of central funding and decision-making. However, the interpretation of the programme as a new urban regime went too far: The development goals formulated jointly on the basis of far-reaching citizens’ participation showed no immediately identifiable results. As one of the programme’s priorities is economic growth, practically all cities are involved in industrial and economic development measures. Among the recent government decisions taken on behalf of cities with county rights, the programme provides crucial development resources for the 23 cities, averaging HUF 150 billion per city.

The central budget for the implementation of the programme in 2015 included HUF 25 billion, HUF 50 billion in 2016, HUF 152 billion in 2017 and HUF 150 billion in 2018. These amounts represent 0.41% of GDP in 2017 and 0.37% in 2018. The financial data suggest that, contrary to some opinions, funding of the programme was sufficient in spite of its disproportionate size. In conjunction with this 3400 billion HUF programme, the Territorial and Settlement Development Operational Programme (TOP) provides approximately HUF 400 billion for other or related developments of the 23 cities. It is worth noting that the volume of government consolidated debt from the 23 cities corresponds to the entire volume of urban development resources of the Operational Programme. Against this background, the government subsidies made available for cities with county rights are significant.