Members of Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Economy and Resources Committee (19 Nov) will be asked to allocate £140k funding from the Council’s 2019-20 Town Centre living Fund (TCLF) to bring the long term empty upper floors of the Jubilee Building in Dumfries back into use, creating 7 flats. Where a single applicant is asking for over £50k in funding, a report must be presented to Members for consideration. Planning permission has already been granted for this scheme. The building is within the town’s Conservation Area and has been listed on the Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland’ since 2000.
The £1m TCLF was created from income from Council Tax on second homes. This local initiative has been widely recognised as delivering a variety of positive regeneration projects across our region, making the best use of the additional income.
E&R Committee (12 September) agreed to allocate an additional £24,065 from Council Tax on second homes to the 2019/20 Town Centre Living Fund to support the delivery of new housing development projects. A total investment of £524,065 was also agreed by Members: the full allocation from the town centre sites budget from the 2019/20 TCLF. In addition, there were 40 applications approved from the Below Tolerable Standard budget of £200k, which has also resulted in the full allocation of this funding.
Committee also agreed in September to an allocation of £120,000 from the 19/20 fund to provide empty homes grant funding to bring the Grade B listed building at 93 Irish Street, Dumfries, back into use as 6 flats. Members will be advised at this November Committee that, should they agree to the £140K allocation for Jubilee Building, this will leave a remaining empty properties budget of £40k. A number of empty property owners are already working on plans to provide additional living accommodation in town centres across the region.
Chair of E&R Committee, Rob Davidson said: “As well as boosting the economy of our town centres by bringing empty and derelict properties back into use, the project has the added effect of addressing climate change by re-using existing buildings, rather than starting from scratch. It is also important to protect our built heritage, and by bringing buildings such as this back into use we are conserving our town centres, making them both only suitable and interesting places to live.” Vice Chair, Archie Dryburgh said: “We need to attract people back into our town centres with sustainable, modern accommodation. This will have the knock-on effect of revitalising town centre economy with increased footfall, creating opportunities for new shops, cafes, etc, making our town centres attractive places to live.”
