Debate contribution: Dilapidation Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Miss Nuala McAllister on 1 July 2025.

MLA

Miss Nuala McAllister

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

1 July 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Dilapidation Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5061389

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the Bill at its Second Stage. I am grateful that my party colleague, Alliance Minister Muir, introduced it. I remember that, back in 2012 or 2013, when I was an activist in the Alliance Party, my first piece of activism was to write a letter to the then Minister Durkan — I think that it must have been 2013 — asking him to take action on derelict buildings in north Belfast. It did not happen then, but it is happening now, and I am glad that we are moving forward on it, finally. It is frustrating that progress has taken so long. I echo the comments about the issues in constituencies that cover two council boundaries. In my constituency of North Belfast, if you journey from outer Newtownabbey into Belfast city centre, taking any of the many different routes that you can, you see the dereliction get worse the further you go into the city. Take the Shore Road, for example. I look back to how long the old Grove site was left unused and the number of buildings that were left when businesses went bust. My constituency colleague has already mentioned the Crumlin Road Courthouse, but there are many more derelict properties along the Crumlin Road. There are issues on the Cliftonville Road as well. Thankfully, some organisations are taking it on themselves to do some of the work. I think about Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum, which developed its own local manifesto on tackling derelict buildings. It put pictures of many of the houses in the area in brochures, which shamed landlords in the area into scrubbing up a lot of the houses by going in, taking on repairs and doing the work. Most of the houses that the community organisation highlighted are now in use. I think about the Antrim Road from Glengormley right down to where it reaches Carlisle Circus and North Street in Belfast city centre. I think of one dangerous structure in particular. One of the buildings collapsed during the day, and emergency services had to be called to the scene. It had collapsed on to the road and into the street. Two businesses — one that was a pillar of the north Belfast community for decades — were shut for a number of months. My kids were mostly disappointed by the fact that our local Chinese had closed down, but thankfully it has relocated, so they are happy now. On a more serious note, we are talking about businesses that were affected because other landlords did not take seriously their obligations to maintain their properties. I have taken the Minister to my constituency of North Belfast and shown him some of those sites. At the time, he agreed that it was a disgrace and that action should be taken. A Member mentioned the Tribeca site and North Street, another area that we need to work together on to ensure that the dereliction is tackled. A number of Members have raised the issues of cost recovery and cost to local councils. I do not know about other MLAs, but I am sure that they could relate to the number of times that my constituency office and I have contacted Belfast City Council or Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council to get an environmental health team out to the sites of derelict buildings and derelict houses to take action. They are wasting money doing that when it could be the landlords taking action. Councils could save money. Imagine if we devolved regeneration powers to councils along with the powers that the Bill will transfer to them: that really could regenerate areas and make them vibrant. I look forward to the statutory guidance. I am not a member of the Committee, but, working with my colleague, I will keep a close eye on it, because it could transform my local area and the local areas of everyone across Northern Ireland. We are in a housing crisis across Northern Ireland. How many houses in disrepair that landlords have let get into a sorry state could be used to house people? There are many. Hopefully, this power will allow councils to take enforcement action against landlords. I am sure that there will be many more discussions on the Bill in Committee, which I will not be part of, but one thing that, I hope, is dealt with is the effect on councils across Northern Ireland and how they will use the powers. I look forward to working with my colleague to ensure that. Remember that each of us has party colleagues who sit on the councils, so we can ensure that councils use the powers. The Minister is giving the gift to councils, and then it will be in our gift and that of our party colleagues who sit on those councils to enforce it and use the powers. I look forward to getting to the Final Stage of the Bill. I very much welcome it.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:58 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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