To ask the Minister for the Economy to outline any discussions she has had with the Minister for Infrastructure on reforming the planning system and addressing wastewater infrastructure, which are barriers to economic growth and investment.

Dr Archibald (The Minister for the Economy)

Earlier this year, I met the Minister for Infrastructure and NI Water, and we are meeting again tomorrow to discuss water and waste water infrastructure and NI Water's proposals to address issues that constrain economic development here. Together, working with industry, we are exploring ways in which we can apply innovative solutions, while continuing to press the British Government for a fair and sustainable funding settlement, the absence of which, over many years, has led to the degradation of our waste water infrastructure. I know that my Executive colleague the Infrastructure Minister is working hard, within financial constraints, to improve waste water infrastructure and the planning system and that she regularly engages with Executive colleagues to advocate for an increase in waste water investment to modernise our ageing waste water system in order to facilitate housing growth and economic development.

Dr Archibald

I thank the Member for her question. She has corresponded with me previously on issues to do with the waste water infrastructure in Newtownards. As an Executive, we are collectively focused on the issue and are working with NI Water. The Infrastructure Minister has lead responsibility for that and has been trying to identify ways in which to free up capacity and to target investment at where it will have the most impact. We continue to work alongside Invest NI as we try to support businesses to navigate the system. We all agree that more needs to be done on investment, freeing up capacity and allowing economic development to take place. I am happy to take up with the Infrastructure Minister the issues that the Member has highlighted, and we are working together to try to find a way forward.

Mr Martin

Minister, the Construction Employers Federation (CEF) has recently stated that over 6,000 homes cannot currently be built in Northern Ireland. The Wastewater Infrastructure Group (WIG) reports that, if constraints continue, Northern Ireland's economy, based on GVA, will be a quarter of a billion pounds smaller over the next three years. How concerned are you about the figures that I have just presented to you? Are you content with your party colleague the Minister for Infrastructure's three-pronged approach, which you referenced, given that the industry has called it wholly inadequate?

Dr Archibald

I thank the Member for his question. As I said, the Executive as a whole have a focus on the need to invest in our waste water infrastructure. We do consider it a constraint to building houses, to which he referred, and to economic development. We are therefore focused on that. I support the Infrastructure Minister's three-pronged approach. She has set out, as her predecessor did, an approach that will help unlock capacity and deal with the water that is going into the system in the first place. There are challenges at both ends. We need to look at how we can do things more innovatively, and the Infrastructure Minister and I, along with NI Water and Invest NI, are currently working on doing that. We are looking to see whether there are things that we can do to support business in order to free up capacity. I assure the Member that we have a focus on the issue and that the Executive as a whole have a focus on it.

Mr McGlone

Minister, can you tell us whether Invest NI records every investment opportunity that is lost owing to planning delays or waste water constraints? If it does not, how can your Department claim to understand and measure the true economic cost of those failures?

Dr Archibald

I thank the Member for his question. I am not sure that there is a dataset that captures what he set out. When businesses and investors make decisions, they make them based on a range of measures, so, of course, Invest will interrogate the various issues that any investor identifies, and it will have a record of that. I am happy to correspond with the Member on the detail of how that information is captured and the exact dataset that Invest NI captures. The chief executive of Invest NI has identified some of the constraints, with which we are all very familiar, as a challenge. Certainly, I have been working with him, as I have with my Executive colleagues, to try to find a way forward. The Infrastructure Minister and I are putting a focus on what more we can do from an innovative perspective to try to free up capacity, allow economic development to take place and, importantly, allow houses to be built.

Mr Gaston

Minister, planning red tape is one of the biggest obstacles to growing our local economy. Devolving planning powers to councils in 2015 moved us from having one set of policies governing planning to having 11 localised plans. Any reform of planning must ensure a return to one set of Northern Ireland-wide policies. Has the Minister considered the impact that having multiple planning policies is having on attracting foreign direct investment or allowing our local businesses to grow?

Madam Principal Deputy Speaker

Minister, you are not responsible for planning. You can answer that question whatever way you feel.

Dr Archibald

Thank you, a Phriomh-Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

I have been fairly generous in not pushing back at Members in relation to who has responsibility for these particular areas, because I very much recognise the cross-cutting impact that planning and waste water infrastructure have on the local economy. I assure the Member that I have engaged regularly with my colleague the Infrastructure Minister, who does have a particular focus on the planning improvement plan, to address some of the challenges — with which we will all be familiar through our constituency offices — when it comes to businesses seeking to invest, develop and grow. It is important to recognise that, over the past couple of years, there have been improvements in the time taken for planning applications. We work on that across Departments, as well as across agencies with different responsibilities. We will continue to place a focus on it, because we all want to achieve the same outcome.