Debate contribution: Cost of Doing Business

Debate contribution by Mr David Honeyford on 2 June 2025.

MLA

Mr David Honeyford

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

2 June 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Cost of Doing Business

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4981660

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. We have debated the issue of high streets several times in the Chamber. I want to concentrate on that and look at it and the wider business around it. The reason for commissioning reports is to gather evidence, look at best practice, enable, deliver and bring through change that will help our high streets to flourish once again. The cost of doing business report by the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre and the previous high street task force report, when put together, clearly lay out the concerns that need to be addressed. Often in the House, we see a photo opportunity for the launch of a report, another in the receiving of that report and a third when a statement is made here. The perception is that that is the job done, rather than it being only the beginning of the work. The lack of action to implement reports, to take difficult decisions and to deliver is where the frustration of our business community with the Assembly comes from. It undermines the credibility of the Assembly as a whole. Businesses in our community do not have time to waste. They do not work to the same timelines as the government processes; they need quick, fast action. The Alliance amendment simply calls on the Minister for the Economy to work to publish proposals and set out how those recommendations can actually be implemented. It puts focus on the Department for the Economy and its remit, rather than exclusively on the First Minister and deputy First Minister's office, so that the issues can be addressed. When you see the issues that the report addresses, you see that rate relief is not being passed on. The money that is coming from Treasury is being used for something else. Look at Bow Street in my city of Lisburn. I have engaged with businesses, property owners and shopping centres there to look at what could be achieved, brought forward or done differently. I have asked them, "If there were a blank page, what would you do?". I have brought property and business owners there together to discuss their ambitions. I have brought in architects to put that down on paper and "space shape" a vision for the future. I look forward to moving on that quickly in the near future. Fundamentally, what are we aiming to fix? What should our future look like? We need to enable a reshaping and repurposing of our town centres to create vibrant, regenerative, sustainable places that are thriving and inclusive, and where retail plays a huge role but the burden to drive footfall is not placed on just one sector; it is opened up. The high street task force report details a lot of that.

Yes.

Thank you for your intervention. The feeling is that there is a blockage when stuff goes into the Executive Office. We need to start delivering for businesses and the wider economy. We need to look at rate relief, but, more widely than that, we need a restructuring of the rating system that encourages the reworking that Sinéad talked about: a rethinking of our town centres that encourages investment and mixed use that tips the advantage towards redevelopment and developing places where we would shop, live, go out and enjoy hospitality and the arts and be entertained in our streets; a place that is a home but somewhere that people can also work. We need to tip the tax advantage towards town centres to encourage growth and also, as has been referenced, for large manufacturing companies and other businesses. In Northern Ireland, we need a system that is best for us and delivers our goals and what we are trying to achieve over the next while. How can it be right that we give rate relief to an empty building in our town centre that is falling down and left to rot, yet we give no support to struggling businesses that are the heartbeat of our town centre, commit to the town centre, provide employment in the town centre and create spaces that the whole community needs and enjoys? When you look at the recommendations that come through, be they on planning, rate reviews, the Town Centre First policy or parking, you see that we need to start acting and working towards solutions. None of those is being held up by financial constraints. Work towards that needs to happen now. It is being held up simply because of lack of ambition and the speed of delivery in this place. Our businesses need focus and the help and support that we can deliver. That needs to happen as soon as possible.

782 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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