Debate contribution: Subregional Economic Plan

Debate contribution by Mr Conor Murphy on 1 October 2024.

MLA

Mr Conor Murphy

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

1 October 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Ministerial Statements

Heading

Subregional Economic Plan

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4562262

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Today, I am announcing a new strategic approach to economic development. It is an approach that is locally led and places regional balance at its heart. The need for greater regional balance is clear. Employment rates range from a high of 79·5% in Mid and East Antrim to a low of 65·4% in Derry City and Strabane. Productivity, a fundamental driver of overall living standards, is 31% higher in Belfast than it is in Derry City and Strabane. To date, the Department for the Economy has not had a coherent strategy for delivering regional balance. The Department did not set regional targets for its economic development agency, Invest NI. As confirmed by the independent review, Invest NI's decision-making was centralised in Belfast. The review also observed that regional offices were underutilised, not integrated into the organisation and too modestly resourced. An important shift took place in 2015, when councils assumed greater economic responsibilities. That acknowledged the value of local areas leading their own economic development. However, councils cannot be expected to transform economies on their own. To turn the dial on regional economic performance, we need everyone pulling together as part of a coherent ecosystem, and I intend to establish that ecosystem. The new approach to economic development starts with local communities identifying their own priorities. Councils will be asked to establish local economic partnerships, bringing together central government, the business community, universities, colleges, local enterprise agencies and civil society. To minimise bureaucracy, existing partnerships can be modified to fulfil that new remit, and councils are free to come together to tackle common concerns and to pool resources and expertise. Partnerships will identify the main barriers to economic development and the priority interventions that will build the region's value proposition. Those priorities will continue to be updated as circumstances change over time. Interventions could involve, for example, support for local clusters; skills programmes tailored to local businesses; preparing more land for business expansion; the development of new start-up and follow-on units; the regeneration of empty buildings for business use; and key infrastructure projects. My Department will recalibrate its programmes and budget to help meet those priorities. For example, my Department is in the process of taking responsibility for the funding provided by the local council to City of Derry Airport. In addition to recalibrating mainstream funding, I intend to support local economic partnerships with dedicated funding of £45 million over the next three years. Invest NI will put a new focus on regional balance and will be a driving force in local economic partnerships. Staff numbers in regional offices will be increased by an initial 40%. Regional offices will assume responsibility for managing local clusters and businesses with a turnover of up to £2 million. A lack of available land for commercial and industrial use is a major barrier to development in a number of council areas. Invest NI will therefore deliver and finance a new regional property strategy that will be delivered through regional offices. Property specialists will be recruited to develop land and property for business use. Invest NI's headquarters will support regional offices, providing specialist advice and expertise, and coordinate with key public bodies such as NIE Networks and NI Water to ensure that local needs are articulated and met. Consequently, the whole of Invest NI, not just its regional offices, will be reorientated towards developing local economies. Crucially, I am setting a clear and ambitious bottom-line target for Invest NI to promote regional balance. Fifty-eight per cent of the population is outside the greater Belfast area, yet the area outside greater Belfast makes up 48% of the economy, as measured by gross valued added (GVA). In order to help redress that imbalance, within three years 65% of the agency's investment should be outside the Belfast metropolitan area. Delivering that target will require changes in organisational structure, decision-making processes, policy, practice and culture. The chief executive of Invest NI has informed me that reaching the target will be challenging, but he, his staff and his board are committed to serving the entire region, and they will do everything in their power to deliver it. The approach that I have outlined today involves a profound change in how we deliver economic development. It starts with local communities working in partnership to define their priorities. It then builds an ecosystem to deliver those priorities. The new structure will be operational from the start of the next financial year. This is a challenging timeline, given the extent of change involved, so I ask everyone to get behind this approach in the spirit of collaboration, because it is only by working together that we can reverse historical imbalances and deliver prosperity for all.

782 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not qualifying

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:15 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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