PPS 4 (Draft): Industry, Business and Distribution
The Role of Development Plans: Strategic Employment Locations

3.7 To support the framework contained in the Regional Development Strategy for sustainable regional growth, development plans will, among other things, make provision for a generous and continuous supply of land for employment uses, This will include a limited number of large-scale, strategic locations spread throughout the region, which the RDS has indicated will be identified and safeguarded, to attract inward investment and accommodate indigenous expansion.

3.8 The RDS sets out the criteria which will be taken into account in identifying Strategic Employment Locations (SELs). The Strategy also highlights the need to protect these key locations where loss to other uses would be hard to recover. The scale of SELs envisaged (some up to 40 hectares) is such that master plans and planning agreements are likely to be essential parts of the delivery mechanism.

3.9 The locational and qualitative aspects of major employment sites are becoming increasingly important, not only for specialist single-user developments, but also for campus development, industrial theme parks and business parks. Further study is required on sites of strategic significance in the context of the sustainable development principles set out in the RDS. This study, to be carried out by the Department for Regional Development in conjunction with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment , Invest Northern Ireland , the Department of the Environment and the Department of Employment and Learning , will include recommendations for a limited number of SELs and sites which are identified will be safeguarded through the development plan process.