Minister welcomes initiative to revitalise city centres

Finance Minister, Sammy Wilson visited an arts exhibition today and explained how it was helping revitalise Belfast city centre.

The exhibition is part of the Belfast Childrens Festival. It is the first of its kind and makes good use of shop premises, which would otherwise lie empty. The Cardboard Cities exhibition in a shop in Castle Lane was arranged by an organisation called Out of Place.

Opening the exhibition, the Minister said: “The intention of this project is to bring life to parts of the city or other towns in Northern Ireland – in areas that may be struggling to find tenants to fill all the shops. Although the exhibition itself is a fun idea it has a serious purpose in preventing a downward spiral of decline in once thriving commercial areas.”

Minister Wilson highlighted the importance of the rating of vacant non-domestic property in freeing up commercial property for new ventures: “The utilisation of empty commercial property was at the heart of the policy decision in 2004 to introduce non-domestic vacant rating into the Northern Ireland rating system. One of the key objectives of that policy, which I fully endorse, was to encourage vacant property to be used positively, as opposed to lying vacant.

“Today’s initiative is an example of what can be done when the incentive is there to get vacant properties occupied and used to ensure vibrant city and town centres.”

Notes to editors:

1. The PLACE project was established in 2004 by the Royal Society of Ulster Architects and Belfast City Council. It develops a wide programme of work in all sorts of different spheres of work including education, design competitions, exhibitions, debates, and many other important areas.
2. The legislation implementing the policy of non-domestic vacant rating provided for the payment of rates at 50% of the full occupied rate assessment on unoccupied non-domestic property from 1 April 2004, subject to certain exclusions the most prominent of which is properties with a rateable NAV of less than £2,000.
3. All media inquiries should be directed to DFP Press Office (Telephone: 028 9052 7374; Fax: 028 9052 7149). Out of office hours please contact the duty press officer via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.