MAG Position Paper - Regeneration: The Value of our Built Heritage

The Department for Communities’ Ministerial Advisory Group (MAG) for Architecture and the Built Environment for Northern Ireland launched the Position Paper, ‘Regeneration: The Value of our Built Heritage’ today. This paper sets out the potential value of effective architectural regeneration throughout our villages, towns and cities.

Launched at a lunchtime seminar at Belfast’s Linen Hall Library by keynote speaker Dr Bill Wolsey OBE of the Beannchor Group, with almost 90 ninety attendees from across the public and private sectors, as well as heritage and academia, the report highlights Northern Ireland’s unique architectural heritage as well as the social and economic value of older building stock, and the added qualities it can bring to our communities.

The Paper details how regeneration can encourage more people to want to visit, work and live in town and city centres, making 10 recommendations, including;

• Increasing engagement with the public about the importance of built heritage
• Creating more Conservation Areas
• Supporting further heritage work in the voluntary and community sector   

Ian Maye, Deputy Secretary of Community Cohesion, Department for Communities commented;

“The Department welcomes this Paper and would like to thank and commend the Ministerial Advisory Group for their comprehensive report. It clearly sets out the value of dedicated architectural restoration, and how it can help realise the potential of Northern Ireland’s communities.  We particularly welcome the recommendations which clearly define ways forward to develop - and indeed redevelop - our architectural infrastructure and surrounding areas, which our people will wish to visit, work and live in, and will ultimately contribute to our vision of creating attractive and bustling communities.”

Useful Links

• Regeneration: the Value of our Built Heritage (Position Paper 2017) MAG Architecture and the Built Environment for Northern Ireland

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