Equality screening outcome report: Vacancy Grant Programme

Published in May 2024

Contents

Overview of the screening template
Section A Details about the policy or decision to be screened
1. Title or policy or decision to be screened
2. Brief description of policy or decision to be screened
3. Aims and objectives of policy or decision to be screened
4. Who will the policy or decision impact?
5. Are there linkages to other agencies or departments?
Section B Information on the consultation process
6. Outline consultation process planned or achieved
7. Available evidence
8. What is the likely impact on equality of opportunity for those affected by this policy, for each of the Section 75 equality categories?
9. Are there opportunities to better promote equality of opportunity for people in Section 75 equality categories?
10. To what extent is the policy likely to impact good relations between people of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group?
11. Are there opportunities to better promote good relations between people of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group?
Section C Consideration of Disability Duties
12. Does this proposed policy or decision provide an opportunity for the council to better promote positive attitudes towards disabled people?
13.  Does this proposed policy or decision provide an opportunity to actively increase the participation by disabled people in public life?
14.  Provide details of data on the impact of the policy with multiple identities
15. Monitoring arrangements
Section D
Formal record of screening decision
Screening assessment completed
Screening decision approved
Footnotes

Overview of screening template

The council has a statutory duty to screen. This includes our strategies, plans, policies, legislative developments; and new ways of working such as the introduction, change or end of an existing service, grant funding arrangement or facility. This screening template is designed to help departments consider the likely equality impacts of their proposed decisions on different groups of customers, service users, staff and visitors.    

Before carrying out an equality screening exercise it is important that you have received the necessary training first. To find out about the training needed or any other queries on screening, contact the Equality and Diversity Officer on extension 6027 or by email [email protected].

The accompanying screening guidance note provides straightforward advice on how to carry out equality screening exercises. Detailed information about the Section 75 equality duties and what they mean in practice is available on the Equality Commission’s website.^_[1]

The screening template has four sections to complete. These are:

• Section A  provides details about the policy or decision that is being screened
• Section B gives information on the consultation process, supporting evidence gathered and has four key questions outlining the likely impacts on all equality groups
• Section C has four key questions in relation to obligations under the Disability Discrimination Order  
• Section D is the formal record of the screening decision

Section A

Details about the policy or decision to be screened

1. Title of policy or decision to be screened

Vacancy Grant Programme
This is linked to the 'Addressing vacancies' priority area in the Future City Centre programme, Vacant to Vibrant pilot capital grant scheme.

2. Brief description of policy or decision to be screened

(Explain is this a new, revised or existing policy? Are there financial, legislative or procurement implications?)

The Vacancy Grant programme is a new initiative to incentivise both property-owners and potential occupiers to bring vacant Belfast city centre spaces back into use and support the city centre’s revitalisation. There is £1million allocated to the grant programme (an initial £700k² (Item 6) was allocated and due to interest, an additional £300k³(Item 5a) was allocated to the scheme) to support start-ups, independent retailers, social enterprises and cultural and voluntary organisations to make our city centre offering more diverse and transform vacant spaces to become vibrant once again. The Vacant to Vibrant capital grant is also designed to improve individual properties, contribute to higher quality streetscapes, sustain jobs and help create new employment opportunities.

It was agreed by members of the City Growth and Regeneration Committee on 6 April 2022⁴ that the grant application process would open in summer 2022, further to strong demand for the scheme captured in an Expression of Interest (EOI) exercise in February 2022. The grant scheme had previously been reported to the committee in October⁵ (Item 6) and November⁶ (Item 6) 2021, where a two-year pilot of £350,000 per annum totalling £700,000 was proposed, and would be funded via the Covid Response Reserves, to enable the delivery of a capital Vacancy Grant Programme. At the April 2022 committee, members also agreed the eligibility criteria for the scheme, which was included as an appendix to the report. Due to demand flagged at the EoI stage, it was agreed that the £700k pot for the scheme be topped up by an additional £300k to bring the scheme total to £1million.

Overview of the Vacant to Vibrant Pilot Capital Grant Scheme

Belfast City Council has a developed a programme of work in response to the rising number of vacant premises across the city centre. As part of this programme, a toolkit has been developed to provide a range of interventions that will aim to reduce vacancy and support economic recovery. The council will deliver pilot schemes to provide immediate support and help to further understand what support mechanisms are most impactful for long term success.

One element of this is a pilot vacant premises capital grant scheme.

The council is piloting a capital grant scheme that will offer a financial incentive to new and existing businesses to uptake vacant space in the city centre. It is considered that a tailored capital grant programme combined with a wraparound business support service could have significant impact.

In 2021, vacancy within the Primary Retail Core (PRC) had increased 2 per cent every year since 2019 and was at 23.41 per cent, with the rest of the city centre (outside of PRC) currently 21.3 per cent. The city centre BMAP boundary was chosen as the parameter of the scheme, due to the evidence of need and potential impact. In addition, the Supporting Vibrant Business Destinations scheme is being brought forward for arterial routes or neighbourhood centres that would be outside the city centre boundary. A full overview on the evidence of need and impact was brought to the City Growth and Regeneration Committee on Wednesday 13 October, 2021⁷ (Item 6).

The scheme will support both external and internal improvements to buildings, expansions or repurposing of premises, and other associated set-up costs, and will support both property owners and occupiers to bring vacant space in the city centre back into use. In addition to supporting occupation of vacant premises and diversifying uses, external improvements to properties will help to activate street frontages, improving individual properties and streets, and generally contributing to streetscape quality and wider city centre vibrancy.

The council will complement the grant by procuring the services of a commercial agent to maintain and regularly update a database of vacant city centre units and assist in supporting interested SMEs and start-up businesses to occupy vacant units. The information and services provided by the agent will enable us to provide a ‘match making’ service to scheme applicants and further our knowledge on both vacancy data and the challenges and opportunities associated with re-activating vacant space.

For this pilot scheme, we have a total funding pot of £1,000,000 to cover these capital costs:

• smaller financial support to pop-up shops and meanwhile test space
• larger grants to encourage uptake of vacant units
• external capital works to façade to improve look and feel of the high street
• internal capital works to make a vacant property fit for purpose and support long term occupation
• diversification of property’s unoccupied space to help existing businesses survive

This scheme will only fund proposals for capital works and will not cover any revenue expenditures, which refers to ongoing operating expenses associated with daily operation such as rent, utilities and administrative costs. Successful applicants will be provided with wraparound business support from the council’s Economic Development section to aid sustainability and longevity within the space and ensure long term investment of the funding.

3. Aims and objectives of the policy or decision to be screened

(What is the policy trying to achieve?)

The aims of the Vacant to Vibrant Pilot Capital Grant Scheme are:

1. Incentivise occupation of vacant spaces for new businesses and organisations to reduce the number of vacancies in the city centre.
2. Provide support for existing businesses and organisations wishing to repurpose vacant space to expand or diversify their offer to reduce the number of vacancies in the city centre.
3. Improve the vibrancy and animation of the city centre to encourage people to live, work, visit and invest.
4. Increase the number of SMEs, start-up, retail businesses, cultural and third sectors accessing vacant space in the city centre supporting them to grow, sustain jobs and create new employment opportunities, either directly or indirectly.
5. Support and enhance the existing offer in the city centre.

The key objectives of the grant programme are:

• Occupation of a vacant premises and bring it back into permanent (two or more years) or temporary (meanwhile or pop-up) use
• Encourage the establishment of businesses and organisations in the city centre and support existing businesses to diversify into unoccupied space
• Make external and internal improvements to vacant premises to support long term occupation
• Enhance the streetscape with high quality external works and activation of ground floor space.
• Contribute to the vibrancy of the city centre and increase footfall in the area. Make the city centre more diverse and attractive with unique or distinct businesses and organisations.
• Create new and local employment either directly or indirectly.
• Promote sustainability within their project through, for example, the use of recycled materials, adoption of zero waste principles, use of clean energy.

4. Who will the policy or decision impact?

Consider the internal and external impacts (both actual or potential) and explain.

5. Are there linkages to other agencies or departments?

The Vacancy Programme contains a number of elements to develop a vibrant and prosperous city centre. This will require close collaborative working and partnership delivery across a number of agencies and organisations from across the public, private and community sectors, with the appropriate agency or department taking the lead.

Key agencies include:

• Government and other public bodies
• council departments: Planning, Building Control, Economic Development Unit
• Departments for Communities, Finance; Trade and Investment
• Land & Property Services
• Belfast City Centre Management
• Belfast ONE BID
• Linen Quarter BID
• Cathedral Quarter BID
• Invest NI, Department for Communities Historic Environment Division (HED),

Institutions

Institute of Place Management

Others

• commercial agents
• city centre businesses
• key developers
• Belfast Chamber of Trade and Commerce
• Retail NI
• NI Retail Consortium
• Trade NI

Section B

Information on the consultation process, supporting evidence gathered and has four key questions outlining the likely impacts for equality and good relations

6.  Outline consultation process planned or achieved

Future City Centre Programme Update (Item 10) – CGR Committee on 12 August 2020⁸

‘Addressing vacancies’ is one of the priority work streams within the Future City Centre (FCC) Programme and will be a key component of short and longer term recovery in light of growing pressures on numerous sectors occupying space within the city centre. A number of recent high profile closure announcements including Easons and Topshop highlight the challenges faced by city centre businesses including, but not limited to, the retail sector. In this context, the review of the FCC Programme will place particular emphasis on developing a range of options for intervention to tackle the issue of vacant premises in the city centre. Given the complex range of factors that can lead to vacancy ongoing engagement with a range of city centre stakeholders will be particularly important. Local property agents and other city stakeholders were consulted at the time of scheme development, and this was presented to members at committee meetings in October 2021 and April 2022.

Throughout the scheme, local property agents and city stakeholders will be re- engaged to help promote the scheme to their relevant audiences, and agents will be contacted in relation to properties that may be of interest to potential applicants. As part of the matchmaker element of the scheme, the commercial agent on behalf of the council, will contact agents and property owners across the city to get a status update on their vacant properties for inclusion in a monthly report that will be presented to the Vacant to Vibrant team, July 2022 to July 2023.

An expression of interest (EoI) process was carried out in February 2022, which received 145 responses from a mix of property-owners, businesses and organisations.

When asked what support would be helpful in assisting a business or organisation to establish themselves within a vacant space, the most popular response was access to finance, and the second was business-planning.

Through the EoI, property-owners identified ‘financial assistance for renovation’ and ‘finding suitable tenants’, as the support that would be most in helpful in aiding the occupation of their vacant space. For property owners there is also often a viability issue in undertaking such works when measured against the likely rental return.

Research into initiatives deployed by other cities/towns has also shown the importance of striking a balance between direct council intervention and third-party support⁹. While grant programmes delivered elsewhere have varied in purpose and scale depending on local circumstances, they have formed a central element of efforts to address vacancy. Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council¹⁰ and Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council¹¹ have both run grant programmes during the last 12 months, providing capital funding to support occupation of vacant premises.

Based on local evidence and data and informed by engagement with local property agents and other city stakeholders, it is considered that a tailored grant programme combined with a potential wraparound business support service could have significant impact.

7.  Available evidence  

What evidence or information (both qualitative and quantitative) have you gathered to inform this policy? Set out all evidence to help inform your screening assessment.

It is important to record information gathered from a variety of sources such as:

• monitoring information
• complaints
• research surveys
• consultation exercises from other public authorities

Policy context

The programme to address vacancy cuts across many of the pillars of both the Belfast Agenda and the Belfast City Centre Regeneration and Investment Strategy, which are the core policy documents from which the programme has been developed. An overview of the relevant policy frameworks that supported the development of the programme are listed and specific targets and themes that it will seek to address in each have been highlighted.

Belfast Agenda

The vision for Belfast in 2035 set out in the Belfast Agenda is:

Belfast will be a city re-imagined and resurgent. A great place to live and work for everyone. Beautiful, well connected and culturally vibrant, it will be a sustainable city shared and loved by all its citizens, free from the legacy of conflict. A compassionate city offering opportunities for everyone. A confident and successful city energising a dynamic and prosperous city region. A magnet for talent and business and admired around the world. A city people dream to visit.

The Belfast Agenda targets we hope to address through the vacancy programme are:

• 46,000 additional jobs
• 66,000 additional residents
• attract over £1billion in private sector investment
• create 4,000 business start-ups
• grow the city’s rates base by 5 per cent through an increased number of residential and commercial developments
• increase the percentage of residents satisfied with the city living experience

City Centre Regeneration and Investment Strategy

The City Centre Regeneration and Investment Strategy outlines an exciting vision to develop a world class city centre for the future.

A thriving city centre is vital to the prosperity of the whole city and the region. Around two thirds of all jobs in Belfast are located in and around the city centre, so everything that we do to enhance it will benefit the city as a whole.

The strategy sets out our collective ambition for the continued growth and regeneration of the city core and its surrounding areas to 2030. It has been shaped by extensive engagement with stakeholders and contains a roadmap of policies to guide city centre decision-making and key projects that translate those policies into action.

Core principles

We are determined that the regeneration of our city centre will drive not just economic growth but social benefits. The strategy therefore includes a commitment to ongoing engagement with local people to ensure that the social impact of regeneration is maximised.

The strategy is based on eight core policies. The principles we hope to address through the vacancy programme are:

• increase the employment population
• manage the retail offer
• maximise the tourism opportunity
• enhance shared space and social impact

Emerging Local Development Plan (LDP)

The draft plan strategy was launched at the end of August 2018. ‘Creating a Vibrant Economy’ is one of the primary aims of the plan to strengthen Belfast as the regional economic driver. It recognises that for our city centre to remain successful, it needs to be the focus for major new investment and retail development. It will encourage a mix of different shops and services and decide where these should be located. The retail policies within the LDP will seek to address current and future retailing needs over the plan period. It will therefore aim to:

• Provide a range of uses appropriate to the role and function of a city centre which can realise ambitions for growth.
• Acknowledge the distinctive role of Belfast city centre as the primary location for retailing in the region.
• Adopt a sequential approach to the identification of retail and other town centre uses decision making.
• Maintain and improve accessibility to and within the city centre by supporting connectivity.
• Support local economies by ensuring continued vibrancy and vitality.
• Develop a compact urban form that maximises opportunities in the city centre.
• Provide a focus for economic development.

Retail and Leisure Capacity Study

The Retail and Leisure Capacity Study for Belfast has been prepared to inform the contents of the new Local Development Plan 2035 (LDP) for the City Council. The study provides guidance on the capacity for new retail and leisure development in Belfast, as well as strategic and operational advice relating to the scale, nature and location of this development in the foreseeable future.

The health check of the city centre has yielded these main findings:

• According to the Goad map, the primary retail area in the city centre has a vacancy rate higher than the GB average, with 18 per cent of units vacant in 2016 compared to 11 per cent in GB. By and large, this level of vacancy has not changed since 2009.
• The proportion of comparison goods shops in the primary retail area has fallen by 7 per cent between 2009 and 2016. In contrast, the proportion of leisure service uses has increased by 5 per cent.
• The presence of multiples in the city centre is increasing (55 per cent of comparison goods units in 2016 compared to 51 per cent in 2009).
• Rental levels on the prime pitches in Belfast are stabilising in line with the trend in GB, while commercial yields on investment in parts of these pitches are exceeding those in several comparably sized cities (Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds).

The scheme will be targeted at property-owners, businesses and organisations. The funding will not have a detrimental impact on any specific section 75 group.

8. What is the likely impact (indicate if the policy impact is positive or negative) on equality of opportunity for those affected by this policy, for each of the Section 75 equality categories? What is the level of impact?

9.  Are there opportunities to better promote equality of opportunity for people within the Section 75 equality categories?

10. To what extent is the policy likely to impact (positive or negatively) on good relations between people of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group? What is the level of impact? 

11.  Are there opportunities to better promote good relations between people of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group?  

Section C

Belfast City Council also has legislative obligations to meet under the Disability Discrimination Order. Questions 12 and 13 relate to these areas.

Consideration of Disability Duties

12. Does this proposed policy or decision provide an opportunity for the council to better promote positive attitudes towards disabled people?

Explain your assessment in full 

Grant applicants can use the funding to undertake capital works that would enhance the accessibility of properties. Projects using the grant to improve accessibility will be captured in project monitoring and reported in the review of the success of the pilot.

13. Does this proposed policy or decision provide an opportunity to actively increase the participation by disabled people in public life?

Explain your assessment in full

Grant applicants can use the funding to undertake capital works that would enhance the accessibility of properties. Projects using the grant to improve accessibility will be captured in project monitoring and reported in the review of the success of the pilot.

As part of our communication, we will have a section on the website dedicated to ‘Help with your application’ where we will promote that we welcome applications from people of all abilities, and that if we can help applicants to apply by making any reasonable adjustments to our process, to let us know.

14. Multiple identities

Provide details of data on the impact of the policy with multiple identities

Not known at this stage

15. Monitoring arrangements

Section 75 places a requirement the council to have equality monitoring arrangements in place:

• to assess the impact of policies and services
• to help identify barriers to fair participation
• to better promote equality of opportunity

Section 75 places a requirement for the council to have equality monitoring arrangements in place in order to assess the impact of policies and services and to help identify barriers to fair participation and to better promote equality of opportunity.  

Outline what data you will collect in the future to monitor the impact of this policy or decision on equality, good relations and disability duties.

Section D

Formal record of screening decision

Title of proposed policy or decision being screened

Vacancy Grant Programme

I can confirm that the proposed policy or decision has been screened for:

• equality of opportunity and good relations
• disability duties

Screening assessment completed by

Name: Niamh Mulrine
Department: Place and Economy
Date: May 2024

Screening decision approved by

Name: Cathy Reynolds
Department: Place and Economy
Date: May 2024

Please save the Word final version of the completed screening form and email to the Equality and Diversity Officer: [email protected]. A link to this screening form will be provided to the council's Section 75 consultees.

For more information about equality screening, contact:
Lorraine Dennis
Equality and Diversity Officer (job-share)
Belfast City Council
City Hall
Belfast
BT1 5GS
Telephone: 028 9027 0511
Email: [email protected]

Back to contents

Footnotes

^[1] Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (link opens in new window)
^[2]Agenda and minutes for City Growth and Regeneration Committee meeting on Wednesday 21 October 2021 (link opens in new window)
^[3] Agenda for Strategic Policy and Resources Committee meeting on Friday 17 June 2022 (link opens in new window)
^[4] Agenda for City Growth and Regeneration Committee on Tuesday 6 April 2022 (link opens in new window)
^[5] Agenda and minutes for City Growth and Regeneration on Wednesday 13 October 2021 (link opens in new window
^[6] Agenda and minutes for City Growth and Regeneration Committee meeting on Wednesday 10 November 2021 (link opens in new window)
^[7] Agenda and minutes for City Growth and Regeneration on Wednesday 13 October 2021 (link opens in new window)
^[8] Agenda and minutes for City Growth and Regeneration Committee meeting on 12 August 2020 (link opens in new window)
^[9] Local Government Association, Dealing with empty shops: A good practice guide for shops (link opens in new window)
^[10] Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council news (link opens in new window)
^[11] Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon City Council, Empty to occupied (link opens in new window)

Back to contents