Community planning

Background to community planning

Community planning involves the local council, statutory agencies, community and voluntary sectors working together to identify local community needs and then designing and providing services to improve people's lives.

For Belfast, we have led the community planning process. We worked with partners, including representatives from the statutory, business, higher education, and community and voluntary sectors, to develop a long-term plan to improve the social, economic and environmental well-being of the city.

Belfast Community Planning Partnership

While developing the community plan, we formed the Belfast Community Planning Partnership, with organisations named as community planning partners in legislation. They have a specific duty to participate in the community planning process.

• Public Health Agency (link opens in new window)
• Health and Social Care Board (link opens in new window)
• Belfast Health and Social Care Trust (link opens in new window)
• South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust (link opens in new window)
• Housing Executive (link opens in new window)
• Education Authority (link opens in new window)
• Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (link opens in new window)
• Libraries NI (link opens in new window)
• Police Service of Northern Ireland (link opens in new window)
• Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (link opens in new window)
• Invest Northern Ireland (link opens in new window)
• Sport Northern Ireland (link opens in new window)
• Tourism Northern Ireland (link opens in new window)

The Belfast Agenda

Our community plan is the Belfast Agenda. It is the city's strategic plan for the future. It provides a simple, clear framework for plans and strategies which we'll take forward with our partner organisations.

As part of community planning, we'll be addressing social issues, spatial planning and place-shaping to improve the well-being of residents in the council area. 

Belfast Agenda - the city's community plan

The Belfast Agenda is the city’s community plan. It is a strategic plan which sets out a shared vision and long-term priorities through to 2035 for improving the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of our city.  

It is about planning ahead to improve the issues that matter to people like health, education, housing, employment, inclusive growth, place and the environment. Working together with city partners, we want to make this an even better place for everyone and make a positive difference to people’s lives.

“Community Planning is about developing a shared vision for the wellbeing of our city.”

The Belfast Agenda was developed through extensive city-wide engagement to ensure that our collective focus is on the right priorities. The first community plan was published in November 2017. It was then updated in 2024 setting out priorities for action over the next four years.