Councillors approve new vacant property grant for businesses in Tipperary

Tipperary County Council has approved the ‘Vacant Business Property Reopen Grant’ at its monthly meeting, which was held in Nenagh on Monday October 13.

The aim of this new grant will be to help tackle dereliction across towns in Tipperary.

Kathleen Prendergast, who is the Economic Development Officer at Tipperary Council Council, gave a presentation to council members about the new grant scheme.

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“We know how important the main streets of our town centres are, they’re the heart of community life and they have our local identity. They also provide economic resilience as well to us,” Kathleen told the meeting.

Properties eligible for this grant must be a business property that is currently vacant for at least three months.

Businesses that have significant overrepresentation on main streets will not be eligible for grant funding under this scheme.

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Examples of these businesses would be betting shops, off-licenses, hairdressers, barbers, nail shops, sun beds and discount stores.

Any businesses wishing to open any of the above in a ‘prime retail core area’ will not be able to do so under this scheme.

Under this new scheme the council have removed the grant maximum rate and have also increased the grant rates, the council are hoping that these measures will have a big impact on shops reopening in towns.

The main street zones and exceptional areas of development will get a grant of 90% of the rates of that property in year one, in year two 80% and year three 70%.

“This is about setting a tone for towns and villages going forward, that we are very focussed on our towns and villages. We will do whatever we can to support the future of our towns and villages and make sure that they have a future. It is a brave decision to invest, set up and expand. We recognise that and we want to do whatever we can,” said Director of Services Brian Beck.

Fine Gael Cllr Marie Murphy said that she was happy to propose this new scheme to the council. “The aim of the scheme is to reduce the number of ground and upper floor vacant properties in our towns and village centres,” she explained. “We need to attract new commercial renters to our town centres and we as a council have to support that,” she concluded.

Fine Gael Cllr John Fitzgerald also supported the proposal but also told the meeting that ‘when you have to think up a scheme to get people to come, you’re already losing’. Cllr Fitzgerald explained that the lack of business during night time hours in Clonmel was likely due to the fact that the town centre does not have a taxi rank. He concluded however that it was a ‘no-brainer’ to support the scheme.

Independent Cllr Joe Hannigan said that he would support the initiative but had some questions for the meeting about the new scheme. Cllr Hannigan made the point of small local shops continuously closing down and the direct link to bigger supermarkets opening up more retail units in these towns. “While you're making strides in trying to help get these units open, at the same time planning is being given outside of town centres that will ensure more of these units close down in the town,” said Cllr Hannigan.

He then asked the meeting what investigations have been done about this, mainly about large retail units opening up in our towns. “What search is being done to see why that shop closed?,” he asked.

Sinn Féin Cllr David Dunne told the meeting that he supports the proposed scheme but had questions relating to why some shops were not considered for inclusion.

“Why weren’t charity shops included in this? And why were discount stores excluded, we are in a cost of living crisis and people need discount stores,” said Cllr Dunne.

Mr Beck explained that certain shops were excluded based on research and to ensure towns get the right mix of businesses in their main streets.

“We’re not saying that other businesses can’t come in, we’re trying to encourage that mix of business in order to protect our towns and grow them,” he explained.