AQW 22612/22-27

Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry

Tabled Date: 14/02/2025
Answered On Date: 23/02/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Infrastructure to detail any measures his Department has in place to ensure that planning policies support the delivery of affordable and social housing.

Answer:

My Department’s Strategic Planning Policy Statement (SPPS) identifies Council Local Development Plans (LDPs) as the primary planning policy instrument to meet affordable housing need identified through Housing Needs Assessment/Housing Market Analysis. It indicates that LDPs should do this by zoning land for affordable housing, or by indicating, through key site requirements, where a proportion of a site may be required for social/affordable housing. This will not preclude other sites coming forward through the development management process.

My Department performs an important oversight role in seeking to ensure that LDPs take account of regional policy and guidance and also that they add value to and assist in the delivery of higher level Executive priorities, such as the recent Housing Supply Strategy. In this context the Department has been encouraging of LDP approaches that maximise affordable housing provision and support the creation of balanced communities and an appropriate mix of tenures. I can advise that those Councils who have published Plan Strategy documents have included requirements for housing/mixed use planning applications above a specified threshold of dwelling units to provide a proportion of those units as affordable properties.

My officials continue to work closely with housing officials in the Department for Communities and colleagues in councils and the NIHE to ensure that collectively, we can facilitate an adequate and available supply of quality homes to meet the needs of everyone.