Unlocking investment for housing through adaptive re-use

Dublin City Council has today launched the results of a new report examining ways to unlock investment for housing through adaptive re-use.

The report responds to a central policy challenge: how to finance urgently needed housing while meeting statutory climate targets, in a context where the built environment is a major source of emissions and existing delivery models are not achieving outcomes at the required scale or pace.

Adaptive re-use for housing

FACE Dublin was delivered by the Centre for Public Impact (CPI) and the TransCap Initiative through a strategic research partnership commissioned by Dublin City Council and supported by the Dublin Metropolitan Climate Action Regional Office (CARO).

FACE Dublin builds on work undertaken by the council over the last few years to embed circular economy and whole life carbon principles into our work.  A key challenge we face as local government is investment to meet our ambition.  FACE Dublin has interrogated the system that shapes the capacity of local government to deliver on housing and climate targets in a manner that is just and efficient.

The recommendations emerging from FACE Dublin to enable acceleration are:
Near term: Establish clear ownership for delivery and secure more flexible public funding
Medium term: Work with national government to unlock scale and crowd in private and philanthropic capital
Longer term: Explore new financing mechanisms to transform how adaptive reuse is funded

Our built environment tells the story of the city, and we are part of its living history. Investment in regeneration is an investment in the social and cultural life of our city.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin Ray McAdam said, “Addressing dereliction through regeneration is one of the most important priorities for Dublin City Council. If we are serious about meeting our housing and climate ambitions, we must unlock the potential of vacant and underused buildings across our city. FACE Dublin is a timely and welcome initiative because Dubliners want their city to be vibrant, lived in, cared for and full of possibility. My mayoral theme is Celebrating Dublin, and part of that means celebrating the buildings, streets and neighbourhoods that tell the story of who we are. We are proud of Dublin. We are proud of its past, ambitious for its present and determined about its future. By working together, we can breathe new life into buildings that hold the memories of previous generations and transform them into places of opportunity for generations yet to come.”

Richard Shakespeare, Chief Executive, Dublin City Council said, “The recommendations that have emerged from FACE Dublin, offer a credible route for local government in Ireland to lead on circular, low?carbon urban regeneration – demonstrating how housing delivery, climate action and place?making can reinforce one another when approached systemically.”

Dennis Keeley, Assistant Chief Executive, Dublin City Council  said, “FACE Dublin brings a fresh and necessary perspective to rethinking how we address the dual housing and climate challenges we face as a city and a country. Applying systems innovation and systemic finance lens to understand how policies, planning, funding flows, organisational structures and incentives interact – and how they can be reshaped to unlock progress and catalyse implementation, FACE Dublin has provided a clear practical and phased approach to help make Dublin a leader in tackling vacancy and dereliction, maximising return on public and private investment to enhance Dublin’s resilience as a liveable city.”

Gabrielle Beran, Programme Director, Centre for Public Impact said, “FACE Dublin demonstrates what is possible when a city tackles complex challenges with fresh thinking and genuine collaboration. Through engagement with more than 90 stakeholders, this work has shown the strength of Dublin’s commitment to delivering housing while meeting climate goals. At the Centre for Public Impact, we work with governments around the world to address complex public challenges, and Dublin City Council’s ambition and openness to innovation have made this a standout partnership. FACE Dublin positions the city at the forefront of circular urban regeneration and offers a practical model for how cities can rethink finance to unlock systemic change.”

Dominic Hofstetter, Executive Director at the TransCap Initiative said, “We have the solutions to deliver affordable, climate friendly housing for all communities. But the challenge of implementation is multi-layered and complex. It calls on DCC to lay out and take ownership of a bold vision, secure buy-in across the public and private sphere, and match the right kinds of capital with the right kind of interventions. This research lays out a pathway to get there and leverage financial capital as an effective tool to unlock this transformation. And it showcases Dublin’s willingness to engage with cutting-edge innovation in the financial space to tackle this challenge head-on.”
Adaptive Re-use is a process in which buildings are adapted for new uses while retaining their historic fabric and features.

About the Centre for Public Impact (CPI)

The Centre for Public Impact is a global non-profit that reimagines government to work better for people and the planet. Our Climate Action team uses our skills as system thinkers, facilitators, designers, and project managers to support those in and around government to build new capabilities, collaborate, foster cultures of experimentation and learning, and navigate complexity. The Centre for Public Impact applies an ecosystem approach to all of our work that aims to address the root causes of challenges by bringing key actors together to build new understandings of problems and co-create solutions. More information Climate change – Centre for Public Impact.

About the TransCap Initiative (TCI)

TCI is a non-profit open innovation initiative working to develop, test and scale systemic investing. We do this through research and conceptual development, prototyping and network weaving. We’re powered by a diverse, international, and ambitious community, and collaborate with wealth owners, institutional investors, foundations, financial intermediaries, researchers, public-sector bodies, and other innovators. Learn more here www.transformation.capital/.

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