Stormont pours cold water on Council hopes for new powers to regenerate Belfast

A local councillor has said a Stormont response to a request from Belfast Council asking for devolved powers to help regenerate derelict areas in the city was “disappointing.”

Last February the council agreed it would write to the new Minister for Communities, DUP MLA Gordon Lyons, to request that work was undertaken with all relevant stakeholders to achieve the conferring of regeneration powers to councils with appropriate budgets - all within this Assembly mandate. “Due to the significant period which has passed since the introduction of the last Regeneration Bill , and the experience of recent initiatives in response to Covid-19 e.g. the Covid-19 Recovery Revitalisation and Small Settlements Programmes in partnership with the Department for Infrastructure and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs , the cross-departmental nature of regeneration activities has been clearly demonstrated.

“In October 2022, the PSG/SOLACE Engagement Forum co-chairs agreed that SOLACE would undertake scoping work to understand what is meant by regeneration powers. The department awaits the outcome of that work.” “There are many former councillors from here who are now MLAs up in Stormont, and I would ask to speak to them. If we are serious about meeting the ambitions of the Belfast Agenda, if we are serious about progressing this city socially, economically and in a climate sense, this council desperately needs physical regeneration powers.”

DUP Stormont Green Party Environment Belfast City Centre

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