Planning and Places

Home Sectors Planning and Places

Overview

Planning is an indispensable element in realising infrastructure projects, whether in building the homes that populations require, realising the economic potential of rural and urban areas, or developing renewable projects across these islands.

The existence of the British-Irish Council’s Planning and Places Work Sector reflects the fact that the challenges faced in each of the eight member administrations are often common in nature, even though they may vary in respect of scale. The Planning and Places Work Sector provides an important forum for exchange of real and useful information and encourages beneficial learning and exchange within this domain.

Lead Administration

Established in 2009, the British-Irish Council’s Planning and Places Work Sector is led by the Northern Ireland Executive.

Current Focus

BIC Ministerial meetings typically take place every three years. The most recent British-Irish Council Planning and Places Ministerial meeting took place in Derry/Londonderry on 8 November 2024, hosted by the Northern Ireland Executive, and chaired by NIE Minister for Infrastructure John O’Dowd MLA.

Ministers also agreed a new Forward Work Plan for 2025-27, which will primarily focus on two themes. The first is Climate Change and the Biodiversity Emergency. This reflects the reality that Member Administrations all face the urgent challenge of reacting to the climate change and biodiversity emergency with limited resources and within a context of ongoing Planning reform. The second primary focus area is Skills and Capacity for the Public Sector Planning Profession. This is responding to the reality that attracting and retaining planning staff in the public sector, is increasingly a serious challenge. And this challenge is acute at a time when many public sector planners face ever-increasing workloads and continuously changing policy contexts, particularly in relation to complex biodiversity and nature issues.

At this meeting, Ministers also reviewed and commended previous activity of the work sector over 2021-24. This work had focused on areas such as the contribution of spatial planning to ‘Building Better Places’ in the context of the Covid recovery and the revitalisation of towns, best practice in national/regional planning frameworks, and the promotion of expert learning and experience sharing.

Ahead of the meeting, Ministers were brought on a walking tour of the historic City Walls, where they heard lively, informative accounts of important episodes from the city’s long history. They also looked at the ongoing work to develop and regenerate the storied city.

The Ministers expressed their appreciation of the value of the British-Irish Council as a valuable forum for sharing information and experience across these islands, and as a means of developing productive and positive relationships.

The following Ministers were in attendance for the occasion.

NIE

John O’Dowd MLA, Minister for Infrastructure

Junior Minister Pam Cameron MLA

UK Government

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Lords Minister for Housing and Local Government)

Welsh Government

Rebecca Evans MS,

Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning

Scottish Government

Ivan McKee MSP, Minister for Public Finance