Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF)

The Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF) aims to deliver more compact and sustainable development, as envisaged under Project Ireland 2040. It does this by part-funding regeneration and rejuvenation projects in Ireland’s five cities and other large towns. Currently, the URDF part-funds 132 projects, comprising of almost 400 subprojects, right across the country.

More compact and sustainable development involves a greater proportion of residential and mixed-use development within the existing built-up footprints of our cities and towns. This will ensure more parts of our urban areas become attractive and vibrant places in which to live, work, visit and invest.

One of four funds set up under the National Development Plan 2018-2027, the URDF supports the objectives of the National Planning Framework (NPF). With an initial allocation of 2 billion euro up to 2027, the fund has been extended to 2030 under the revised NDP 2021-2030.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has responsibility for administering the fund.

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne TD has announced a new Towns and Cities Regeneration Investment Fund to replace the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF) which will provide greater focus on disadvantaged areas and widen the scope of eligibility to include more smaller towns.

While replacing the URDF, the new fund will continue to build on its success to date and apply many of the key criteria established by Government in 2018 for the URDF. All supported projects under URDF receive a maximum 75% funding support from the URDF programme with recipients providing the balance.

While this criteria will remain under the Towns and Cities Regeneration Investment Fund, the new scheme is focused on supporting the regeneration of disadvantaged areas in particular.

The maximum funding available to projects located within areas defined in the Pobal Index as ‘Disadvantaged’, ‘Very Disadvantaged’ or ‘Extremely Disadvantaged’, is 90% of the overall project costs. A further criteria under the former URDF was a requirement that cities and towns must have a population greater than 10,000 or a minimum of 2,500 jobs to be eligible for support.

Minister Browne has decided that the criteria under the new Towns and Cities Regeneration Investment Fund will be changed so that those towns with a population greater than 9,000 will be included – bringing more towns into the scope of the scheme.

Distinct from previous URDF funding calls, the third round of funding support will not be a competitive bid process. The third round of funding support will be specifically designed to address long term vacancy and dereliction across our URDF cities and towns and the acceleration of the provision of residential accommodation. This approach will ensure the projects supported by the URDF align with the current objectives of other government policies such as Housing for All and Town Centre First.

These objectives reflect the identified necessity to bring existing long term vacant and derelict buildings and sites into use for residential and other purposes. Providing this strategic support within URDF towns and cities will complement current and future URDF projects that involve a mix of public realm improvements, sustainable transport infrastructure, recreation and sporting amenities and site infrastructure works.

A circular to local authorities outlining the arrangements for finalising the third round of funding is available at the link below.

Circular URDF 01/2023 - Urban Regeneration and Development Fund – Third Round of Funding Support

The URDF has had two funding rounds. On 05 March 2021, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien, announced the first provisional funding allocations under Call 2.He has subsequently announced more allocations.

The central theme of Call 2 is ‘compact growth’, one of the NPF’s ten national strategic outcomes. In this context, the fund aims to facilitate a greater proportion of residential and commercial development, supported by infrastructure, services and amenities, within the existing built-up areas of larger urban settlements.

The announcement followed a second call for proposals, announced in January 2020.

In July 2018, the department issued a first call for proposals. It invited bids from all public bodies and received a total of 189 applications. The application process was competitive. URDF support for 88 projects throughout the country was announced on 26 November 2018. A list of the successful projects is available to view below.