Housing projects 'revitalise' towns and villages - minister

Róisín McManus

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has said that the regeneration of provincial towns and villages is key to ensuring people can stay in their local communities.

James Browne made the comments while visiting and opening a number of housing developments across County Cavan last Friday afternoon, May 29.

The Minister began his tour in Belturbet, where he visited nine social homes under construction on Widow’s Row and opened Lána Uisce, the redevelopment of the former Duckin’ Stool pub on the main street into three social homes.

He then travelled to Cavan Town, where he visited Fort View in Drumlark (145 homes) and Gort na Carraige (134 units) on the Cootehill Road, which are both a mix of private, social and affordable housing.

Afterwards, he officially opened 20 social homes delivered in the first phase of the St Brigid’s Terrace development.

Minister Browne ended his visit with the official opening of Ballyjamesduff Fire Station (See page 18 for more).

Speaking to the Celt outside the former Duckin’ Stool pub, the housing minister said that the redevelopment of the vacant property, which cost approximately €1M, into three apartments was “very good value”.

“You have to look at more than the raw cost of doing a project like this, the benefits that are not even quantifiable in terms of money to a local community of having people living in a town centre.

“You already have water, wastewater, footpaths, electricity in the area so that takes that cost away from moving out to greenfield sites further out of town but also helps to revitalise the town centre.”

“It brings a sense of community into our town centres and tackles antisocial behaviour by having people in our town centres.”

According to the minister, Cavan is meeting and exceeding its social housing targets, and there will be new higher targets set in future to include disability housing, which he says is “so important”.

“We will continue to fund Cavan, and not only deliver social homes, deliver affordable homes, and we want to help them facilitate private home delivery as well because having that mix is so important.”

“We want to get families and children into homes as quickly as possible. You also need one and two beds for families who don’t have children or for single people as well.”

The administration of social housing lists, he says, are “for the most part” left to the local authorities, who understand the local community.

Although he wants local authorities to deliver social housing through design and direct build, private developers “certainly have a role” in the development of social housing as it is “going to take time” for local authorities to make this transition.

“Local authorities need to acquire the sites and we need to get social homes built, and we do ensure that we get very good value where there are private developers building and delivering.”