Stormont Committee puts plans in place to 'resolve concerns and strengthen' Dilapidation Bill

The Dilapidation Bill is a proposed piece of legislation in Northern Ireland, introduced to the Assembly in 2025 aimed at empowering local district councils to tackle neglected, run-down, or dangerous buildings and sites.

But today in an oral evidence session from Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA) the committee heard how present guidance ‘does not give clear powers’.

Addressing the committee Councillor Matthew Garrett – Vice President of NILGA – said: ‘We recognise that we were before you on the 22nd of January, and we set out local government's broad support and the intent for this bill, but we also outlined our serious concerns about deliverability, public expectation, resourcing, cost recovery and the balance between public interest and private rights’.

He added that ‘in terms of this legislation, the committee's expectation was that their officials would engage urgently with local government to work through the issues raised before the committee moved into a clause by clause scrutiny’.

And since January he added ‘NILGA councils and professional officers have engaged constructively with officials to try and resolve concerns and strengthen the bill’.

However, ‘despite that engagement, the core concerns remain unresolved and nothing substantive has been presented by the department that would remove the delivery risks that councils have highlighted as such’.

Another NILGA official added: ‘It goes around in circles. And whenever you take a real life example, and you try to fit it in there, work hard and you see more questions as to why it's going there, why it's going around in circles’.

Chair of the AERA committee Robbie Butler added: ‘This doesn't actually do what it sets out to do, so there's no point in doing this is a monumental waste of time if you just can't use it, and that's the bottom line.

‘So get the officials here that need to be here, and let's make a bill that you guys can take away and work.

‘That's my proposal and officials should be here. There should be no tactical disadvantage to them being here to create something that's actually going to benefit the public, because it is a danger.

‘So let's create something that actually does work in a reasonable way, within a reasonable time frame.

‘I don't see why we shouldn't take that opportunity to do it. Should it take another few months? You know, let's not fix it on a day.

"If it reaches into another mandate it’s better than dealing with, you know, unworkable legislation.’

He asked for an update from NILGA next week.

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