Finance Bill: Limerick Chamber Reaction
Living City Initiative cautiously welcomed
SME Action Plan needs to go further
15 February 2013: Limerick Chamber has today cautiously welcomed the announcement that Limerick has been designated for the pilot of the Living City Initiative announced in the 2013 Finance Bill after noting that the incentives are restricted to owner/occupiers.
Speaking this morning, Maria Kelly, Limerick Chamber CEO, said “Limerick’s designation recognises the specific challenges facing our city. We need a vibrant living functioning urban area to help drive growth for the entire greater Limerick City-Region.”
“Limerick Chamber has long been calling for tax incentive scheme to allow for the redevelopment of our Georgian stock. And although the incentives contained within the Living City are designed to get more people living in the city, we believe that restricting the incentives to just owner/occupiers could mean the desired impact may not be achieved as the cost and scale of the refurbishment required is out of the reach of many families. We need incentives that allow Georgian buildings to be refurbished into prime office space and high quality living spaces. This will result in not only preserving our Georgian Heritage but also bringing life into that part of the city again.”
“The incentives to encourage retailers to upgrade their premises are welcome as Limerick has a high percentage of local business owners as landlords. Improvements to retail facilities will complement the public realm upgrades undertaken by the Local Authority,” she concluded.
Details of a 10 Point Tax Reform Plan to Help Small Businesses, which was announced in Budget 2013, were also included in the Finance Bill. Limerick Chamber will be conducting a thorough critique of these initiatives in conjunction with Chambers Ireland with the view to developing an ‘Alternative’ 10-Point Plan. At recent discussions held with Chambers Ireland and the Troika they expressed interest in seeing Chambers proposed ‘Alternative’ plan.
ENDS
For more information contact Edwina Gore, Limerick Chamber, pr@limerickchamber.ie or p|061-217607.
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