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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Damien Edgar

Vision set out to transform Belfast into modern city with diverse living spaces for 20,000

The Belfast Chamber wants a commitment from Stormont to help turn Belfast into one of Europe's leading cities.

The ambitious proposals are aimed at bringing the city up to speed with cities like Liverpool, Leeds and Birmingham.

"When Belfast does well, the whole region does well," said Chief Executive Simon Hamilton.

Read more: Belfast estate agents tell council "not enough" student type houses in Holyland

"We still believe that Belfast has a lot of untapped potential, it isn't the finished article by any means.

"There are things like upgrading the city's water and sewage systems that are maybe not seen as an attractive thing to talk about, but they're crucial to the future growth and development of the city."

The Chamber has laid out areas where improvements could be made to help Belfast catch up with other UK and European cities.

Those include cleaner and safer streets, boosting the entire region's economy and taking a much more people-centred approach to the city centre.

With that in mind, one of the key proposals is to grow the city centre population by 20,000 people.

"We're in the almost unique position where very few people live in our city centre," Mr Hamilton said.

"You will create a more vibrant city centre if you have 20,000-plus people living in it, that will help city centre businesses, it will create that sense of a more vibrant, dynamic city centre that you see in other parts of the UK and Ireland."

He added that there were plans in place to develop 11,500 units of housing across all sectors (student living, private rentals, social housing), by 2035.

He said a report carried out by Grant Thornton on behalf of the Chamber found that target would be missed by 99%.

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Mr Hamilton also highlighted the importance of tourism offerings to the city centre appeal, citing the Belfast stories plans for some elements to be housed at the old Bank of Ireland building on Royal Avenue.

" Titanic has been a great success as well, but on the other side of the river, to have a big destination right in the heart of the city, near to retail and hospitality, is crucial too.

"You've got to keep evolving and changing that tourism offering, you can't let it go stale.

"A lot of that is around talent, we have the universities in the city, it's about keeping people here and providing areas for them to develop in."

He cited the example set during the pandemic and post the Primark building fire of what could be achieved by reimagining how space was used in the city.

"We've seen some great innovation and initiatives over the last couple of years to help the likes of those hospitality businesses," he said.

"It's shown not only can you do things differently, but it's actually quite desirable to do things that way.

"That would require some changes to the layout and infrastructure of the city, and there's work underway around that and we would encourage those making those decisions to be even bolder."

He cautioned that while businesses would continue to do what they could in the absence of an Executive, the presence of one would help to move forward projects in a much more timely fashion.

"Businesses in Belfast and across NI, in spite of those challenges, have continued to grow and employ people.," he said.

"But their job and the growth of the region is greatly helped by having an Executive in place.

"Those business have shown their commitment to growth in Belfast and NI more generally, we're asking those in the Assembly to show the same commitment."

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