Region
Brussels
"30,000 Brussels residents leave the capital every year"
Some 30,000 local Brussels residents are turning their back on the Brussels Region every year. Most of these people are middle-class families with a yearly income of between 20,000 and 50,000 euros before tax. Their decision is bad news for the city coffers.
The figures are based on calculations made by Emmanuel De Bock of the radical Francophone slate FDF, the financial daily L'Echo reports. The share of middle-class people in the capital area dropped with 5.6 per cent between 2001 and 2011. According to De Bock, the city misses out on 261 million euros in revenues.
De Bock warns that measures should be taken to stop this trend. "Flanders has already taken tax measures. They oblige us to react. If this continues, we have to ask for a new financial plan in 10 years' time."