Agenda item

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1.0     Purpose of Report or Summary of Main Issues

1.1       To make members aware of the on-going work in relation to the development of the first draft Employment Land Monitor (ELM) for Belfast. Members should note that additional work will continue in respect of the digital mapping within the district to gain a complete picture in relation to employment land across the city.

1.2       The council is required to develop and maintain the Monitor to support the delivery of the Local Development Plan and to inform future decision making. Once established it will support the monitoring of policy and the uptake of employment land as projected within Policy EC2 (employment land supply) of the draft Plan Strategy.

1.3       The proposed approach for the ELM reflects that established for the Housing Land Availability Report and will be supported by a similar online map portal.

2.0       Recommendation

2.1       The Committee is asked to note the proposed form and content of the draft Employment Land Monitor report for 2020/21 as set out here.

3.0       Main Report

            Background

3.1       The Planning Act (NI) 2011 requires the council to make an annual monitoring report to the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) in respect of the Local Development Plan (LDP) implementation. The work on the evidence base for the draft Plan Strategy has provided the foundation for the employment land monitoring that will be formalised alongside the work to deliver Local Policies Plan.

Employment Monitor Report

3.2       The primary purpose of the draft ELM is to inform decision making and the ongoing performance of policy in respect of land supply across the city. As an evolving information source, it will provide a mechanism to identify where imbalances in land supply may develop and can inform prospective investors or developers on the availability of land that may be suitable for employment uses across the city.

3.3       The draft ELM sets out the headline data from the register of potential employment land, based on current planning policy designations and planning permissions. This provides an assessment at a point in time (31st March 2021) for the amount of land available for employment purposes and capacity for future employment across the city.

3.4       This information is summarised within the report in relation to:

·        completed net employment gains over the period 2020/21;

·        remaining net supply (comprising extant consents and sites where development is on-going) at 31st March 2021; and

·        the potential additional supply in terms of vacant land suitable for employment use at 31st March 2021;

3.5       This ELM report will be supported by the online map portal showing the status of all existing employment monitor sites alongside the other spatial mapping for the LDP on the council’s website. For the 2020/21 monitoring year there was 2724m² of employment floorspace completed with the majority of this being office floorspace. At the 31 March 2021 there was approximately 101,000 m² of employment floorspace under construction and 509,000m² remaining by way of extant planning permissions. Applying the 40% building to plot ratio to the remining areas provided an additional yield of 344,000m².

3.6       As this is the first year of publication, the data relates only to one year. It is difficult to identify pattern or trends or make conclusions that might be more apparent with average figures calculated over a longer timeframe.

Finance and Resource Implications

3.7       There are no resource implications associated with this report.

            Asset and Other Implications

3.8       None noted.

            Equality or Good Relations Implications/

            Rural Needs Assessment

3.9       The draft Employment Monitor Report presents factual information and makes no recommendations relating to the future allocation of land for housing. There are therefore no relevant equality or good relations implications attached to this report.”

            The Committee adopted the recommendations.