Challenge

How do we encourage people to live in the town centres

Posted by Annmarie McHugh on Feb 25, 2021

We have a homeless crisis in Ireland yet towns in Ireland have houses which are unoccupied as well as shops with living quarters upstairs and no one in them. What do we need to do to encourage people to live in towns, such as families or older people in supported living accommodation? Would energy saving and noise reducing initiatives have an impact ? What would entice you to live in a town centre?
Renovating houses would improve the dereliction in a lot of towns and make them nicer places to live in & visit.

Monaghan

Smart Villages, Town Centres, Children And Families

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Annmarie Mchugh

Thank you both. I don't believe government incentives are the only answer but what if they penalised or encouraged the owners of derelict houses or CPO'd them and used the money to create a benchmark exemplar house in town so people can see how you can create a nice , warm house in a town centre. Show it to people & support them with resources such as info in SEAI, local builders etc so they could do up an existing town centre home own and create employment in the process?
As before ! what next in this Innovating community process !

Kathleen Kearns

I agree with Máirín, CoVid19 has made more rural communities attractive to families and small to medium enterprises. There should be rent/rates subsidies for new micro-businesses and penalties for property owners who do not maintain their properties.
Families also need public transport, recreational areas that are open, comfortable, and properly maintained.

Mairin Martin

Totally agree but very hard to actually get started. A lot of the older businesses which have been closed for many years are reluctant to sell their premises or do them up sufficiently to rent them out. Again we need more Govt incentives to encourage these people to do so. I think COVID restrictions will actually have helped, as more and more people do not wish to commute to work, especially long distances.

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