Following a direction from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Rt Hon Chris Heaton-Harris MP on 20 September 2023, the Department for Infrastructure has launched a consultation today on options for introducing an increase to Private Streets Inspection fees.
The consultation provides an overview of proposed increases in existing fees and the potential establishment of additional fees for the inspection of private streets developments in Northern Ireland. A Private Street is defined as any street that is not currently part of the public road and as such is not maintained by the Department for Infrastructure (DfI). The Private Streets legislation is designed to recover all costs from developers for the Department’s work in, processing bonds and carrying out inspections, investigations, tests and the taking of samples to ensure new streets are safe and can be adopted into the public road network. The Private Streets inspection fees have remained unchanged since 2003 and the costs of carrying out inspections of development sites are now significantly higher than they were then.
The consultation sets out and seeks views on the main pathways through which the inspection fees may be increased and identifies additional areas of the Private Streets inspection process that could be considered for the establishment of fees to support budget sustainability. The Department therefore needs to consider how best to ensure that the cost recovery mechanism for inspection and administration of the private streets function is financially sustainable and complies with guidance on setting of fees for public services.
The consultation is designed to inform our review of Private Streets fees and future work in this area.
The consultation document with full details of the options and how to provide your views is available on the DfI website at: Increase Private Streets Inspection Fees
The consultation begins today and will run for 12 weeks closing on 8 March 2024.
Notes to editors:
- The Secretary of State’s direction of 20 September to departments to launch consultations is here: Secretary of State writes to Northern Ireland Civil Service on sustainable public finances
- In October, the Department of Finance published an overarching document to set out the financial context for the consultations. The document is available on the Department of Finance website: Financial context for revenue raising consultations
- A Private Street is defined as any street that is not currently part of the public road and as such is not inspected and maintained by the Department for Infrastructure (the Department). These are typically located in new developments. Before Private Streets can become part of the public road network, they must be adopted by the Department.
- All media queries should be directed to the Department for Infrastructure Press Office at: press.office@infrastructure-ni.gov.uk.
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