The debate about housing costs in the mobility budget comes down to one question: Do housing costs belong there?

Maybe we're asking the wrong question.

Housing costs are already part of the Belgian mobility budget through Pillar 2. And the current energy crisis makes the case for keeping them stronger than ever. When the International Energy Agency recommended working from home as one of ten urgent measures to address the most severe energy crisis in decades, Belgium already had a fiscal instrument in place to support it. It's called the mobility budget. And it's been here all along.

What exactly did the IEA recommend?

Last week, the IEA published a list of ten urgent measures to ease pressure on global energy markets. Its first recommendation to employers: let people work from home.

The context is anything but theoretical. The Strait of Hormuz (through which roughly 20% of global oil supply normally flows) is effectively closed. European gas prices have risen 65%. Belgian gas reserves have dropped below 30%. IEA Director Fatih Birol described the situation plainly: bigger than the energy crisis of the 1970s, bigger than what followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Against that backdrop, the recommendation sounds almost deceptively simple. Working from home up to three days a week reduces national fuel consumption by two to six percent. No public investment required. No excise tax cuts needed.

Belgium's Mobility Budget already has the answer

Working from home is a fiscally supported choice that Belgian employees can make today, through the mobility budget. It allows them to trade in their company car for a budget they can allocate to sustainable alternatives, including a contribution towards housing costs for those who live close to the office or work from home on a structural basis. Those who don't want to give up the car entirely can opt for a smaller, electric vehicle instead.

Three in four employees with a mobility budget already allocate part of it to housing costs. Around one in five spends part of it on a zero-emission vehicle. For larger companies, the mobility budget becomes mandatory from 2027. But the energy crisis isn't waiting for that calendar.

Why are housing costs a mobility matter?

Fair challenge: housing isn't a journey. But mobility policy was never purely about what vehicle someone drives. It's about how many kilometres someone travels each day, and why.

Someone who lives closer to work commutes less. Someone who works from home more often, too. The outcome is identical: less fuel, less congestion, less emissions. Whether that reduction comes from living closer to the office or working from home more often doesn't change the effect. The three pillars of the mobility budget were designed with exactly this flexibility in mind.

The real question is about outcomes, not categories

The real question isn't whether housing costs belong in a mobility budget. It's which policy actually reduces fuel consumption, limits kilometres travelled, and cuts CO₂ emissions. If housing costs do that (and the data shows they do) the answer becomes obvious on its own.

The IEA is calling for remote work. The fiscal legislation already enables it. The crisis isn't waiting for consensus.

Nick Bols, CCO at Mbrella