The Stormont Executive has been urged to consider an often underutilised infrastructure fund to progress the transformation of the Tribeca area of Belfast.

It concerns the area around North Street in the city centre, including the historic Assembly Rooms.

Planning approval was given in 2020 for the £500 million Tribeca Belfast plan aimed to regenerate the area, however there has been little progress made on it so far.

Opposition leader Matthew O’Toole has urged that the Executive look at using Financial Transactions Capital (FTC) to progress the project.

FTC is funding allocated to the Assembly by the government. It can only be deployed as a loan or investment in a capital project delivered by a private sector company.

The SDLP MLA indicated that the funding is rarely fully used by the Executive.

He suggested it could be used to deliver the Tribeca plan, and pointed to the example of how the Laganside Corporation was set up to transform an area around the capital’s river Lagan during the 1990s.

In an Opposition Day motion at Stormont, Mr O’Toole expressed “deep concern over dereliction in Belfast city centre”.

He highlighted Tribeca as having “contributed to a growing sense of squalor and decay” and the lost revenue from unpaid rates on vacant properties.

He called on Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald to introduce a vacant land tax, and also to work with other ministers to engage proactively with Belfast City Council around the site, which he said boasts historical significance in terms of the Enlightenment.