Our place
Creating a liveable and connected, vibrant and competitive city
A key ambition of the Belfast Agenda is to attract a further 66,000 residents to the city by 2035 and work in partnership with key agencies to ensure that all residents have access to the high-quality, sustainable homes they deserve. In order to achieve this, the council has a key role to play in terms of supporting housing led regeneration across the city.
We also want to ensure quality place-making and that Belfast is a liveable city in which local people are connected to their community and both residents and visitors are able to connect with jobs, services and amenities in safe, active, accessible, and sustainable ways in the long-term.
Enhancing our city centre is also crucial to ensure that Belfast is a thriving and inclusive destination for residents and visitors alike. We will continue to strengthen and build on our sense of place by accelerating major regeneration schemes. These will seek to deliver inclusive economic, social and environmental benefits, whilst protecting and enhancing access to our built and natural heritage.
Quality place-making and housing-led regeneration
While the council does not have direct responsibility for building new homes, it does have a range of powers relating that can support quality place-making and contribute to housing quality and housing development.
These include:
- implementation of our Local Development Plan
- house in multiple occupancy (HMO) licensing
- building control
- planning control
- non-statutory regeneration activities
- economic development
- promoting the city to investors, and
- using our own land for household development and regeneration.
Local Development Plan
The Belfast Local Development Plan (LDP) 2035 Plan Strategy was adopted in 2023 and sets a vision for how Belfast should look in the future. The LDP will guide investment decisions in the city, supporting the ambitions of the city for inclusive, sustainable growth and development. Over the next three years, the council will produce the Local Policies Plan (LPP) which will contain local policies and site-specific proposals in relation to the development and use of land. The plan will set out designations and land use zonings required to deliver the council’s vision, objectives and strategic polices. To support the Local Development Plan and the strategic growth of the city, we will implement our planning improvement programme and streamline our planning application processes to provide a more efficient, effective and customer-focused service.
Support and work with partners to address housing challenges
The council will continue to work with partners such as Northern Ireland Housing Executive to support increased provision of social homes through the Social Housing Development Programme. We will procure and engage with our long-term private sector partner (PSP) to act as a master developer to deliver residential-led, mixed-use developments in support of our city’s growth targets. Working with partners we will seek to Accelerate City Centre Living through the transformation of derelict and underutilised city centre buildings into mixed-use and residential tenures.
Strategic site assessments
A key priority for the council will be to deliver Phase Two of our Strategic Site Assessments to bring forward housing-led regeneration schemes. Active and Sustainable Travel Connectivity is vital for a city to be successful. Whilst Belfast is the transport and logistical hub for the entire region, it must also meet the needs of our communities, ensuring they have access to jobs and to each other. Improving connectivity within the city centre as well as between the city centre and neighbourhoods is critical to our future success. We will work to deliver and implement an overarching programme on connectivity, including access, active and sustainable travel and connectivity across the city.
Strategic Place Making Partnerships
The Eastern Transport Plan (ETP) is a strategic framework for bringing forward climate commitments, supporting the integration of a prioritised and modernised public transport system and a network of walking and cycling routes across a number of council areas including Belfast. The council will work closely with the Department for Infrastructure to ensure that the ETP aligns with and supports our ambitions for a connected and sustainable city.
Future city centre and wider city regeneration and investment
We will lead on the delivery of a range of strategic regeneration and investment schemes across Belfast to ensure that the potential of the wider city is maximized in a way that benefits all citizens and results in improved outcomes for communities. We will also work to secure funding to sustain the long-term use of 2 Royal Avenue in line with the acquisition objectives and recommendations set out in the operator feasibility report.
Future City Centre Programme
Our Future City Centre Programme seeks to address challenges facing the city centre. These include the emerging retail, tourism and hospitality landscape and the need to reimagine and diversify to future-proof the city centre. We will reimagine the city centre, promoting mixed uses, open and green spaces and community infrastructure.
A Bolder Vision
An ambitious blueprint developed jointly by the council, the Department for Communities and the Department for Infrastructure to explore a shared approach to creating a more attractive, accessible, safe and vibrant city centre. The vision is built on the principles of promoting wellbeing for all; prioritising walking, cycling and public transport; creating lively, safe and green streets; and removing barriers to movement between the city centre and surrounding communities. We will prioritise the development of A Bolder Vision Delivery Plan that will identify a range of outline pilot projects and interventions that will be most beneficial for city centre.
Cultural and Tourism Development
We will continue to work with our partners to deliver on our ambitions to grow, position and sustain our tourism industry, offer an improved visitor experience, strengthen our position in national and international tourism markets while developing sustainably to attract more people to the city and to encourage them to stay longer and spend more. We aim to profile and leverage Belfast’s position as a gateway city. Neighbourhood tourism We will prioritise growing our tourism product by investing in neighbourhood tourism and supporting the incredible range of community and cultural festivals and events that take place across the city. We will also continue to invest in an annual major events programme and seek to attract large scale events such as the Fleadh Cheoil, with all the benefits that these bring both to our economy and the liveability of the city.
Cultural Strategy and Tourism Plan
The council will drive delivery on our Cultural Strategy, ‘A City Imagining’ and 10-year Tourism Plan ‘Make Yourself At Home’, to create a culturally vibrant city which embraces and embeds culture, arts, events and festivals at its heart. We will build on the legacy of Belfast2024, a cultural celebration for our city through supporting innovation, enhanced community engagement and key strategic partnerships to foster a sense of identity, social cohesion and economic growth. We will embrace our new status as a UNESCO City of Music and deliver the Multi-annual Cultural and Arts Support Programme. This will support local VCSE groups across the city to deliver capital projects in communities which help develop neighbourhood tourism, improve environmental sustainability and support the city’s social economy.
Belfast Stories
Belfast Stories is a key project within the Belfast Regional City Deal (BRCD). Due to open in 2030, it will be located in the historic Bank of Ireland building and the surrounding 5,000 metre-squared site at the top of Royal Avenue.
The key strategic objectives of Belfast Stories are to:
- Grow Belfast’s economy through tourism led regeneration and support for screen-based creative industries
- Create and sustain a diversified, vibrant city centre where people want to live and work, visit, and invest
- Support a greater sense of connection with Belfast
Belfast Stories brings together three threads as one:
- A public space – a place for everyone to gather, helping us to express our unique identities and share them with others.
- A visitor attraction which clearly communicates the spirit of the city – its past, its present and its future
- A creative hub where writers, musicians, artists and film-makers can meet to create and collaborate.
