CIOB NEWS
CIOB NI POLICY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS MANAGER JOSEPH KILROY EXAMINES HOW THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN POLICYMAKING AND CAPACITY BUILDING IS PLAYING OUT IN NI’S BUILT ENVIRONMENT… Translating reform into projects
Over the last 18 months, changes have been made to almost every area of built environment policy in Northern Ireland. Planning rules are being reformed, including changes to development classes, thresholds and the planning process itself; building regulations have been strengthened, particularly around fire safety; new legislation is being introduced on water, sustainable drainage and flood management; and the policy framework for housing, renewable energy, retrofit and the historic environment is also evolving. At the same time, councils are being given new responsibilities around derelict and dangerous buildings, while policy efforts are ongoing to increase housing supply. Changes to policy are welcome where they reflect changing societal circumstances. Yet, when it comes to the built environment, policy provides the framework within which delivery takes place, rather than the means to deliver. In NI, the scale of policy reform alongside a shortfall in delivery begs the question of whether the diagnosis of the need for policy change is the correct one. The data on actual delivery draws out the distinction between policy reform and delivery. Despite significant changes to planning and housing policy, the evidence of improved delivery remains limited. Planning applications took an average of 19.6 weeks to process in 2025/26 against a 15-week target, while major applications took 41.4 weeks against a 30-week target. Meanwhile, more than 50,000 households remain on the social housing waiting list, with almost 40,000 in housing stress. Despite significant policy changes to accelerate renewable energy, the infrastructure needed to deliver that ambition remains a constraint. While 53% of electricity generated came from renewables in the year to June 2026, achieving the next stage of the transition will require major investment in the
“In NI, the scale of policy reform alongside a shortfall in delivery begs the question of whether the diagnosis of the need for policy change is the correct one.”
electricity grid, storage, flexibility and interconnection. The Department for the Economy has explicitly identified grid infrastructure and flexibility as necessary to enable further renewable capacity and wider electrification. This all points to a wider question about the capacity of NI’s built-environment system to translate policy reform into projects on the ground. The situation in NI is a national example of a wider point about the importance of public capacity to deliver, and about the limits of policy reform where such capacity does not exist. Planning reform, for example, isn’t simply a legislative problem. If councils and statutory consultees don’t have sufficient people, expertise and resources, changing the regulations won’t solve the
underlying shortfall in delivery. Wastewater provides a useful illustration of what can happen when government focuses directly on delivery capacity. Faced with infrastructure constraints that were preventing new development from connecting to the sewerage network, the Executive provided £30m in additional capital funding, targeted at specific interventions by NI Water, which is expected to unlock capacity for around 5,300 properties. If NI wants its ambitious programme of planning, housing, building regulation, retrofit, energy and environmental reform to translate into real-world outcomes, it will need to think just as seriously about the capacity to deliver those changes as it does about designing them.
Joseph Kilroy, Policy and Public Affairs Manager Ireland, Scotland and Wales T: +353 (0)1 513 8950 - M: +353 (0)8711 94 475 - E: jkilroy@ciob.org - www.ciob.org Want to know more?
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