The re-use of vacant properties as part of an overall scheme to revitalise NI's city centres has been welcomed.

NI Finance Minister, Sammy Wilson - who was visiting an arts exhibition - explained how he was helping revitalise Belfast city centre.

The exhibition, part of the Belfast Children's Festival, is the first of its kind and uses shop premises that would otherwise lie empty. The 'Cardboard Cities' exhibition in a shop in Castle Lane was arranged by the 'Out of Place' organisation.

Opening the exhibition, the Minister said: "The intention of this project is to bring life to parts of the city or other towns in Northern Ireland - in areas that may be struggling to find tenants to fill all the shops.

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"Although the exhibition itself is a fun idea it has a serious purpose in preventing a downward spiral of decline in once thriving commercial areas."

Minister Wilson highlighted the importance of the rating of vacant non-domestic property in freeing up commercial property for new ventures.

"The utilisation of empty commercial property was at the heart of the policy decision in 2004 to introduce non-domestic vacant rating into the Northern Ireland rating system," he said.

"One of the key objectives of that policy, which I fully endorse, was to encourage vacant property to be used positively, as opposed to lying vacant.

"The initiative is an example of what can be done when the incentive is there to get vacant properties occupied and used to ensure vibrant city and town centres," the DUP Minister concluded.

(NS/BMcC)