To provide methodological solutions that characterise the cost-effectiveness of the adaptive reuse of historic urban buildings for ex ante financial evaluation discussions between local authorities and other public bodies. This will be achieved by carrying out a comparative assessment of residential development, using an ecological economics approach that includes the wider social, environmental and cultural value(s) in the assessment of regeneration proposals. Taking into account the Town Centre Living Initiative: Six Pilot Towns: Synthesis Report published by the Department of Community and Rural Development (May 2020), this study will compare and contrast the cost of the provision of housing and associated services on (a) edge-of-town greenfield sites, (b) brownfield sites (demolish and rebuild) and (c) via the adaptive re-use of existing urban buildings. 

This research should provide a rationale for including the conventionally missing economic benefits of heritage-led urban regeneration into a financial appraisal model, giving local government and state agencies responsible for the protection of heritage a practical work that can be incorporated into the decision-making processes for adaptive reuse of heritage buildings.

As well as financial assessments, the appraisal processes designed by such a work should incorporate a means to quantify the value of social, economic and cultural benefits to town centre regeneration and vitality.