AQW 35291/22-27


Ms Kate Nicholl
Alliance Party
South Belfast


Tabled Date: 12/11/2025
Answered On Date: 01/12/2025
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister for Infrastructure to detail (i) the role her Department has in holding housing developers accountable for meeting quality standards; and (ii) the existing protections for purchasers, when those standards are not met.


Answer:
The planning system generally has an important enabling role to play in facilitating the delivery of housing and my Department’s Strategic Planning Policy Statement (SPPS) requires councils to facilitate an adequate and available supply of quality housing to meet the needs of everyone and supports good design standards and positive place making for all types of development.
Councils determine the vast majority of planning applications for housing development, and under the provision of the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011, have the general discretion to take enforcement action in response to alleged breaches of planning control, such as non-compliance with planning conditions. While my Department continues to support the delivery of homes to meet the full range of housing needs of society through regional planning policy and guidance it has limited influence in holding developers to account in meeting quality standards in new housing developments and in providing protections for purchasers beyond its responsibility for the planning legislative and policy framework for the planning system.
On a wider note, my Department has been working collectively with local government, and other key stakeholders to deliver a Planning Improvement Programme with the aim of enhancing and making a tangible difference to the planning system in the North. My Department has made recent changes to the Planning (General Development Procedure) Order (NI) 2015, to introduce statutory planning application validation checklists for councils, designed to improve planning performance with better quality applications entering the system, resulting in shorter processing times, more efficient consultee responses and quicker planning decisions. This should also give rise to better quality decisions in the planning process for all types of development, including for housing.