Construction boom, education and sustainability make Horsens feel good about the new year

Trends are looking positive for the Danish city according to local officials and businesses

Every year, Dansk Byggeri and Horsens Municipality meet to take the temperature of the local business climate. And judging by this last meeting, the temperature despite Covid-19 is really good at the moment, giving the opportunity for authorities and citizens to feel slightly more optimistic about 2021.

At the meeting, Horsens Municipality was able to report on a very high level of construction activity with over 2700 new homes on the way, just as several large local companies are currently investing and building new ones.

Taking stock and moving forward

“The construction in Horsens is going really fast at the moment. It gives great bustle to many of our members. Therefore, it is also important that we have a good dialogue with Horsens municipality, so we can ensure a good and flexible case processing,” explained Jens Arne Pedersen, local chairman of DI Dansk Byggeri in Horsens.

The construction and housing industry is a business strength in Horsens and accounts for up to a quarter of all jobs in the municipality. Therefore, it is important that there is also long-term thinking to strengthen the construction industry both in relation to future tasks, increased demand for sustainable construction and access to skilled labor.

“I think we had a really good dialogue with Dansk Byggeri, where we turned many important issues. The construction in Horsens is going really well at the moment, but that does not mean that we just have to sit back.

Therefore, I am also glad that we got to talk about the development opportunities that, for example, are hidden in an increased focus on sustainable construction that fills more and more, just as it is crucial that we maintain our focus on strengthening Horsens as an educational city with special focus on the vocational and technical educations,” stated Horsens’ Mayor Peter Sørensen.

The new campus in the centre of Horsens and the adjacent craft college are examples of targeted initiatives to ensure a qualified workforce for the construction industry in the future. Horsens Municipality has also recently been selected as the DK2020 municipality, which means that the entire municipality's area must be CO2-neutral by 2050. And that plan will largely depend on ambitious local climate plans in collaboration with the business community, and larger requirements for sustainable construction.