Northern Ireland's Planning Service, along with the country's lending institutions, have failed to reach any form of agreement on the issue of planning approvals that contain occupancy conditions, according to a South Down MLA.

Expressing disappointment, the SDLP's PJ Bradley said: "I am aware of a number of cases where planning permission has been granted on the grounds of special needs. These may be health related or work related needs considered as special circumstances.

"When the approval documentation is issued a clause is inserted that states that only the special needs applicant can reside in the property and this is where the difficulties arise.

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"Lending institutions will not offer mortgage facilities to the applicant because of the more-or-less prohibitive clause.

"They as a body trust no one, they base their decisions on the assumption that the borrower will default on their payments. Should such an unlikely situation arise thus leading to repossession the lenders are legally unable to sell the property to anyone else because of the occupancy clause," he said.

Mr Bradley continued: "What I fail to understand is why the Planning Service is unable to come up with a form of words that would offset the perceived problem. The attitude of the lending institutions has the effect of rendering the approval to the status of a useless document.

"I have tried in vain to have the Minister for the Environment (Edwin Poots) address the issue but without success.

"It is now my intention to raise the matter on the floor of the Assembly in the hope that a better understanding of the issue can emerge and that the matter can be resolved."

(NS/BMcc)