DfE and Invest NI Regional Growth workshop underlines the importance of lifting the pause on NI Growth Deals
Thu, October 17, 2024
A senior representative from Causeway Coast and Glens, along with a range of other organisations, has participated in a joint DfE and Invest NI led workshop.
The workshop focussed on the practicalities of delivering the regional economic growth anticipated within the Sub-Regional Economic Plan for Northern Ireland, recently launched by Economy Minister, Conor Murphy,
The main theme of the workshop was on the future importance of Local Economic Partnerships, facilitated by local government, and with a strong influence over future decisions on where growth investment is required. It was agreed that ongoing growth investment is required if the Minister’s objectives for regional growth are to be achieved.
The theme of the workshop, however, was in stark contrast to the UK government’s recent announcement of the ‘pausing’ of growth deals for both Causeway Coast and Glens (£36m) and Mid South West (£126m).
The ‘paused’ Causeway Coast and Glens Growth Deal spans across 9 different projects, with the potential to be an economic ‘game changer’ for the Borough. Anchored by a world-class Centre for Food and Drug Discovery in Coleraine, innovation projects such as these are now at risk, due to the ‘pause’.
The Mayor of Causeway Coast and Glens, Councillor Ciarán McQuillan, welcomed the opportunity for participation in this workshop and said: “There is an obvious mismatch between the theme of this workshop and the recent decision of the British government to stall the previously agreed £36m Growth Deal investment in Causeway Coast and Glens. Why should the British government’s investment in economic prosperity be limited to Belfast and Derry and their immediate hinterlands?”
“We are delighted that we have had the opportunity to feed into plans for regional growth, but it is very clear that Growth Deals, in the regions beyond Belfast and Derry, are a necessary and crucial part of these plans.”
The Mayor added:“At the start of October, the Economy Minister Conor Murphy released the Sub-Regional Economic Plan for the North, it outlined the Minister’s commitment to: ‘developing a regionally balanced economy’ and highlighted the need for the British Treasury to immediately reverse their decision to ‘pause’ the £36 million contribution it had committed for the Causeway Coast and Glens Growth Deal in April 2024.
“The Minister referenced an economy: ‘where everyone shares in the benefits of prosperity’ and went on to review each Councils’ economic performance across four key indicators. Across all four economic measures, Causeway Coast and Glens was the only Council to score consistently red, an indication that our Borough’s economic performance is in most need of support and investment across all the eleven Councils in the north of Ireland. This is further hard evidence of the need for an urgent re-instatement of the Borough’s Growth Deal.”
The Mayor continued, saying: “The British Treasury needs to urgently reverse their decision, and clearly it is in their gift to do so, since they ‘lifted the pause’ on the Belfast and Derry deals within days of the original decision.
“How can the government in all good faith ‘pause’ our funding when both the British government and the Executive have committed to a policy of sub-regional economic growth for all?
“The Economy Minister’s Sub-Regional Economic Plan clearly shows us to be at the bottom of the economic pile. Therefore, I continue to join with my fellow Elected Members, MLAs, MPs and Ministers from all parties, to ask The British Treasury to the ‘lift the pause’ on the Causeway Coast and Glens Growth Deal as a matter of extreme urgency.”
