Debate contribution: Dilapidation Bill: Final Stage
Debate contribution by Mr Andrew Muir on .
- MLA
- Mr Andrew Muir
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 8 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- Dilapidation Bill: Final Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5674254
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank all Members for their contributions to this constructive debate, particularly the Chair of the Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee. I am very grateful to the Committee for its constructive scrutiny of the legislation. It has been supported ably by Janice and the rest of the team on the Committee. It has been a team exercise, and I appreciate everything that people have brought to it. A number of points were raised during the consideration of the Final Stage. I assure Members that I will not speak for as long as Alex Attwood used to speak on issues such as this. In relation to some of the key points about funding, I have done what I can. There is a role for the wider Executive, particularly the Department for Communities and the Department for the Economy, in the revitalisation of our villages, towns and city centres. As we have just discussed, we need to take a long-term approach to the benefits associated with bringing buildings back into use and how that can help not only the neighbourhoods that have been affected by dilapidation but the rates base as well. There is a role for the Department of Finance in rating policy, and there was a recent consultation on that. We need to find a way of not incentivising owners of buildings to leave them empty, and we need to find a way to ensure that people bring them back into use. The Bill has discretionary powers for councils, and I assure Members that we will continue to engage with councils on the guidance that we will publish in due course. Ultimately, the legislation has the power to do good for our villages, towns and city centres. Legislation is the bread and butter of this place, and I am very proud to bring the Bill to Final Stage. I hope that Members will endorse it and that we can move forward and deliver for everyone in Northern Ireland.
329 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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