AQW 24294/22-27

Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 12/03/2025
Answered On Date: 27/03/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Infrastructure whether she will introduce legislation, similar to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill going through Westminster, to remove the barriers to development that is limiting housebuilding in Northern Ireland.

Answer:

I am committed to ensuring that the planning system in the North operates in an efficient and effective way. My department has been working collectively with local government, who are responsible for over 99% of all local and major planning applications, and other stakeholders to improve the planning system through the Planning Improvement Programme.

The programme has already delivered positive changes including targeted updates to legislation to enable council planning authorities to introduce statutory validation checklists to improve the quality of planning applications entering the system, and in turn reduce the potential for delay through the application process. My department is also conducting a review of the Planning (Development Management) Regulations (NI) 2015 to enable the planning application process to be further streamlined. Ongoing work with statutory consultees has already resulted in performance improvements and this engagement will continue.

My officials are currently engaging with individual council planning authorities and other key stakeholders in the planning system with a specific focus on identifying challenges in current development management (planning application process) practice and procedures, as well as individual performance related matters, to inform further opportunities for efficiencies and improvements to the system.

My officials will engage with officials in the British Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government regarding this Bill and any potential learnings.