Derry & Strabane building income rise hailed

During a monthly building control update report, members of April’s Environmental Services Committee were told that the total income generated by council’s Building Control department, for the eleven months up until the end of February, was £1,031,666, while applications with a construction value of £180.5 million were received over the same period.

Head of Environment and Building Control, Conor Canning, said this was the first instance of council generating over £1 million in income over an eleven-month period, while SDLP councillor Rory Farrell noted that the construction value of applications for the same period last year was £109 million.

“It’s a 65 percent increase year-on-year,” he added. “So that’s really, really amazing news.”

Director of Environment and Regeneration, Karen Phillips, agreed that the results were ‘fantastic to see’, and noted there are often ‘blips’ in reported figures due to large applications.

She clarified: “For example, when we did the extension of the Altnagelvin Hospital that actually brought in income and it also brought in a very high value application in terms of the cost of the development.

“What we’ll see in the years to come is some of our City Deal projects, and then university expansion and associated projects, will impact on the income and you’ll see that hopefully as we move to these projects through planning.

“That’s the reason why we bring this in on a monthly basis, because it’s a very good indicator of where the economy is at locally.”