Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 April 2022
323. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will report on the Housing for All plan for targeted funding via the urban regeneration and development fund and rural regeneration and development fund to support the town centre first approach as part of the wider objectives for the regeneration of cities, towns and rural areas. [17554/22]
View answerTown Centre First, jointly developed by my Department and the Department of Rural and Community Development, sets out 33 actions which will provide a co-ordinated framework across established national policy objectives (in particular the National Planning Framework, Housing for All and Our Rural Future), to address the decline in the health of our towns and sets out actions to regenerate and revitalise them.
A key elements of the Town Centre First policy will be the development of Town Centre First (TCF) Plans. These non-statutory plans will be produced by a local Town Team drawn from local community and business representatives. The TCF Plans will identify challenges, actions and integrated responses across a number of themes (business/commercial; community/cultural; housing; built environment; heritage). The TCF Plans will be action and project orientated in nature and will assist towns in accessing a range of potential funding programmes available for town regeneration across a number of government departments and agencies.
The development and delivery of TCF Plans will be supported by a network of Local Authority Town Regeneration Officers and also a National Town Centre First Office, which will be established within the Local Government Management Agency.
The Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF) is already providing funding for projects that will enable a greater proportion of residential development to be delivered within the existing built footprints of both our cities and large towns, while also ensuring that more parts of our urban areas can become attractive and vibrant places in which people choose to live and work, as well as to invest and to visit. To this end, the fund has already provided €323m in funding to town regeneration projects since its inception in 2018 as well as committing over €1 billion to the cities and and the five regional growth centres identified in the NPF. It is intended that a third call for URDF project proposals will be issued later in 2022, to include a focus on supporting the delivery of Town Centre First.
In addition, the RRDF, which is the responsiblity of the Minister for Rural and Community Development seeks to support ambitious and strategic projects in towns and villages with a population of less than 10,000 which have the potential to transform rural economies and communities and achieve the objectives of Our Rural Future. In total, the RRDF has now provided over €278m with a further €60m allocated for investment in 2022. A fourth call for Category 1 RRDF applications is now open and the closing date for applications is the 29th April 2022. This call has a strong focus on supporting projects that will assist in revitalising rural towns and villages through planned, sustainable regeneration and development including addressing vacancy and the re-use of heritage and other existing buildings in alignment with the Town Centre First approach.
