Agenda item

            The Committee was reminded that, at its meeting on 5th June, it had agreed a number of headline priorities for the 2019/20 programme of work, which would, amongst other things, assist in delivering the Belfast Agenda and key corporate priorities such as the Belfast City Centre Regeneration and Investment Strategy the Belfast Region City Deal and the Inclusive Growth Framework. The Committee had agreed also that a workshop be held to allow for more detailed discussion to take place around the headline priorities.

            The Strategic Director of Place and Economy reported that the workshop had taken place on 25th September and that discussions had focused primarily upon the following areas:

·        maximising the Council’s role as convenor and influencing strategic city issues and investments, such as housing, transport, regeneration, connectivity, and open and green shared spaces, to encourage the establish of sustainable city centre living;

·        continuing to lobby for the transfer of regeneration powers to local councils;

·        building upon strategic partnership working to promote the city’s assets and to realise the opportunities presented by the Belfast Region City Deal;

·        the Council’s role as a responsible employer and leading by example;

·        delivering a twin track approach to support people into employment and engaging with employers to support upskilling and progression opportunities;

·        the need to build strategic relationships with key employers in order to understand how we can help them and they can help us address some of the key city challenges;

·        providing tailored and targeted support to enable those who face multiple barriers to employment to benefit from a range of employability and skills support;

·        the need to be ambitious in encouraging new businesses to start up and grow in Belfast and to think more radically about the types of support that might help them;

·        the increasing importance of tourism to the city’s development and the need to continue to invest, in order to ensure that the city feels the benefit of the tourism growth;

·        the need for meaningful and ongoing community engagement for city developments and infrastructure; particularly in terms of established communities and neighbourhoods;

·        the benefit of master planning to bring forward coherent urban design;

·        the benefit of working with public and private sector partners to provide critical mass in terms of attracting and bringing forward development opportunities which can deliver mixed tenure residential, along with a viable mix of commercial, social enterprise and cultural opportunities;

·        exploring the feasibility of alternative options to help address key issues, for example, co-development of housing, a business start-up offer for the Belfast economy, increasing vitality in the city centre and the future role of retail, generating a city centre environment to build communities in which people choose to live; and

·        learning from the experience of the Bank Buildings Primark response to inform and manage our approach to intervene and support residents and businesses, for example, in the event of recent redundancies. 

            He pointed out that the workshop had proven to be beneficial in that it had enabled Members to gain a deeper understanding of the issues and challenges across the City and had allowed for more focused engagement around the proposed approaches for progressing programmes of work.

            The Senior Development Officer then provided the Committee with an update on the progress of the Belfast City Centre Regeneration and Investment Strategy, with reference being made to the eight core principles, the key projects/places to focus efforts, the special action areas, key achievements and current challenges. 

            After discussion, the Committee:

                    i.           noted the update on the strategic workshop and the Belfast City Centre Regeneration and Investment Strategy; and

                   ii.          agreed that a workshop be held to discuss in greater detail the issue of residential provision, in the context of the City core and those areas surrounding it.