BUILD Shankill is a community-led partnership approach to addressing issues around vacant and derelict land in the Greater Shankill area of Belfast. 

The BUILD working group identified 59 undeveloped, vacant or derelict sites that are either in public or private ownership. As a collective they are committed to developing innovative and community-led approaches to regenerating these sites as well as campaigning for government backed intervention to improve the local area through the development of public or privately funded projects.

QCAP has provided BUILD with technical support, local housing market analysis and developed a dedicated interactive vacant site register to help the working group to engage more effectively with statutory agencies like the Department for Communities and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.

This support has helped the BUILD working group to advance discussions around the possibility of derelict site transfers but also leveraged additional funds to commission technical experts to undertake feasibility work across these sites to showcase potential and better understand economic viability.

QCAP academics have also supported BUILD along with the Greater Shankill Partnership to establish a new community regeneration company called the Shankill Development Trust. This represents a dedicated legal subsidiary that could be used to advance and manage any proposed physical regeneration projects in the short or long term.

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