‘If You Build It, They Will Come’: Governing property-led rural regeneration in Ireland

Gkartzios, Menelaos; Norris, Michelle

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2010.10.002

Cited by 31 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 24 publications

(25 reference statements)

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“…The RRS cost an average €90.6 million per year between 1999 and 2004, which is significant compared to public spending for other area-based rural development programmes in the country and subsidised in total 1,876 developments by the end of 2004, 79 per cent of which were newly built residential developments (Goodbody Economic Consultants, 2005). However, Gkartzios and Norris (2011) have been fiercely critical of the scheme, which they argue contributed to the oversupply of housing, which in turn has contributed to high rates of vacant houses in the area and has raised questions about the appropriateness of property-led regeneration in rural areas in Ireland, particularly in the context of a house-building boom.…”

Section: The Irish Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mortgage-related issues in a crisis economy: Evidence from rural households in Ireland

Murphy

Scott

2013

Geoforum

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Publication informationGeoforum, 46 : 34-44 Publisher ElsevierItem record/more information http://hdl.handle.net/10197/4317 Abstract. The recent economic crisis has demonstrated the extent to which households are exposed to the financialisation of advanced economies. Much of the debate surrounding the reasons for the crisis has centred on the role of neoliberal policies and particularly lax mortgage lending practices among financial institutions. This paper explores how neoliberal ideas were applied to property and development during the Irish house-building boom. Drawing on questionnaire survey data across five case study locations, it examines the mortgage practices of rural households during the boom period and their existing conditions in the current burst. In addition, the impacts and consequences of the neoliberalisation of the rural mortgage market for rural households within the context of the failure of these policies, a major housing crash and a neoliberal policy fix based on severe austerity measures is examined. Our results point towards the extreme hardship and stress being felt by rural households and highlight, through the lens of rural housing, the extent to which the practices and consequences of neoliberal policy in the mortgage arena are varied spatially in rural areas. Publisher's statement þÿ T h i s i s t h e a u t h o r s v e r s i o n o f a w o r k t h a t w a

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Section: The Irish Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mortgage-related issues in a crisis economy: Evidence from rural households in Ireland

Murphy

Scott

2013

Geoforum

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“…The scheme was successful in stimulating population and housing growth in the designated areas, inevitably attracting some new, affluent residents. Notably, the designated areas increased their population by almost 10% between 2002 and 2006 (compared to 8% nationally), while people with third-level education residing in these areas increased by 43% during the same period (compared to 27% nationally) (Gkartzios & Norris, 2011). Census data also reveal that the districts designated under the RRS increased their share of white-collar workers (all professional and non-manual workers) as part of the labour force from 33% in 2002 to 37% in 2006, while the proportion of white-collar workers increased nationally from 45% to 47% during the same period (CSO, 2006).…”

Section: Rural Mobility In Ireland: Supply-side Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, the scheme also resulted in the oversupply of housing, which in turn has contributed to high rates of vacant houses in the area and has raised questions about the appropriateness of property-led regeneration in rural areas in Ireland and internationally (Gkartzios & Norris, 2011). Additionally, the Scheme's deadweight, that is housing that would have been built either way given the housing boom Ireland was experiencing at the time, was estimated at 46.4% (Goodbody Economic Consultants, 2005), which in line with its cost to the exchequer led to the abolishment of the Scheme only in 2006 and after a series of continuous extensions.…”

Section: Rural Mobility In Ireland: Supply-side Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gentrifying the Rural? Planning and Market Processes in Rural Ireland

Gkartzios

Scott

2012

International Planning Studies

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Rural gentrification represents an emerging research agenda in the context of social transformation of rural localities. Having as a case study the Republic of Ireland, which provides a case of a laissez-faire planning system, this paper first addresses supply-side factors that have provided key preconditions for gentrification to take place. Then, using survey data in case study localities, we examine the extent that gentrification is a factor in rural residential mobility. We argue that the changing rural condition of Ireland provides essential preconditions for gentrification to take place. However, the gentrification literature provides only a partial angle of rural residential mobility, given the nature of rural in-migration observed in our case studies (that is blue-collar and return rural in-migration) during a period of substantial rural housing growth.

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“…The academic research consists principally of case-studies of the Urban Renewal Scheme's impact on a single district, city or region (e.g. MacLarran and Murphy, 1997;Williams, 2006) and two analyses of the Rural Renewal Scheme (Gkartzios and Norris, 2011;Keane and Garvey, 2006). Notably, the Town Renewal Scheme has attracted no research interest to date.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Girst (2003: 250) among others criticised these arrangements on the grounds that 'unlike the later models of urban renewal schemes, the rural renewal scheme returned to the broad approach of designating large geographical areas without any specific planning framework to guide and focus development'. Notably, Gkartzios and Norris (2011) suggested that decisions regarding the spatial targeting of the Rural Renewal…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Property-Led Urban, Town and Rural Regeneration in Ireland: Positive and Perverse Outcomes in Different Spatial and Socio-Economic Contexts

Norris

Gkartzios

Coates³

2013

European Planning Studies

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Keywords: inner-city, tax incentives, renewal, Section 23. IntroductionGovernment concerns about declining regions and neighbourhoods increased significantly after World War II and since then a large variety of methods have been employed in western countries to regenerate areas of this type. In cities these efforts initially focused on clearing (largely private rented) slums and providing replacement housing (often social rented), but following widespread criticism of its destabilising effects on community cohesion, by the 1960s regeneration programmes focused more on refurbishing existing dwellings and addressing social problems by improving social services (Carmon, 1999). From the 1980s, urban regeneration fashion changed again and, as an alternative to the public sector driving development, more attention was paid to attracting private sector investment (Roberts, 2000). Although, property development remained the most common strategy used to address economic and population decline in these districts.Thus in the parlance of this policy field, regeneration remained largely 'property led' (Healy, et al, 1992;Jones, 1996). 3Traditionally western governments have employed quite different strategies to regenerate declining rural areas. Until recent decades these have focussed overwhelmingly on supporting the agricultural sector, via for instance the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy. Since the 1990s however, rural development goals have shifted to reflect the 'post-productivist' role of the countryside, due to the decline of agriculture (van der Ploeg et al., 2000;Murdoch et al., 2003).. Thus they have increasingly emphasized: environmental conservation, agri-tourism and economic diversification, sustainable use of natural resources, improving the quality of life in rural areas and village renewal (Dywer et al., 2007). In contrast to urban areas therefore, property-led regeneration strategies and housing development in particular have rarely been employed in the rural development context. Indeed despite concerns about population decline, particularly in north western Europe, many governments have actively constrained new housing development in rural; areas, rather than promoted it (Scott and Murray, 2009).Urban regeneration policy in the Republic of Ireland has broadly reflected these international trends. It has been strongly property-led and, in keeping with the norm in other Anglophone countries such as USA and the UK in recent decades, was operationalised mainly using fiscal incentives, rather than direct public spending (Adair et al., 2003;Jones and Evans, 2008). Thus, the principal Irish urban regeneration intervention of recent decades -the Urban Renewal Scheme, encompassed a package of fiscal incentives (popularly known 'Section 23' incentives after the clause of the legislation which underpinned them) which enabled the construction or refurbishment costs of commercial premises or dwellings for owner-occupation or for-profit renting to be off-set against income or business tax. These were introd...

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‘If You Build It, They Will Come’: Governing property-led rural regeneration in Ireland

Cited by 31 publications

References 24 publications

Mortgage-related issues in a crisis economy: Evidence from rural households in Ireland

Mortgage-related issues in a crisis economy: Evidence from rural households in Ireland

Gentrifying the Rural? Planning and Market Processes in Rural Ireland

Property-Led Urban, Town and Rural Regeneration in Ireland: Positive and Perverse Outcomes in Different Spatial and Socio-Economic Contexts

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