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 4562268

Read the official Assembly record

Text

We have not been overly prescriptive on the make-up of local partnerships, because that is best worked out locally. Of course, that will include not just the university at Magee but other regional colleges across different council areas. As I said, we are not being prescriptive. The one prerequisite is that they are genuine partnerships. It will work only if people genuinely come together to articulate the economic priorities in an area and work to deliver them. On Derry airport, we have been in dialogue and working through the arrangements with the Department for Infrastructure for some time, and we have been talking to the airport and Derry city council. As the Member will know, there has been a bit of ping-pong on the issue for too many years. That particularly came to light during COVID, when the Department of Finance ended up supporting the airport. Given the airport's strategic and regional economic presence and what that means for the north-west generally, it is our intention that the Department for the Economy will assume responsibility for it. We need to work through the arrangements for that. That would lift the burden that Derry City and Strabane District Council ratepayers have been carrying on their own, even though the airport serves other council areas and geographical areas. Of course, that will, in turn, allow the council to use that money for other purposes to, hopefully, develop economic prosperity in the Derry city council region.

I welcome the Chair's statement. I also thank him and the Deputy Chair for the discussion that we had earlier. Of course, the Programme for Government, which the Executive have released in draft form and which is, with Executive agreement, out for consultation, commits us all to work to address regional imbalance. I expect that that will follow through with other Departments' engagement. The BMAP that the Member mentioned was, I think, a 2004 construct, but, obviously, we have talked about the four council areas, including Belfast, in proximity to it. The BMAP is for the purpose of measurements. There are clear issues of deprivation in that. I have engaged with Belfast City Council and its group leaders on how they would use some of the resource that might come from this to tackle issues of deprivation in some of those urban areas. On the measurement of Invest's activity, which was clearly criticised in the Lyons report for being too Belfast-centric, this is about measuring Invest's actual activity outside that area and increasing its level of activity in supporting businesses to grow. We want to see businesses and economic prosperity grow right across the region, but we have a direct responsibility to try to tackle imbalance. If we do that by measuring it in the way that I described, we can get a sense of how the dial is shifting outside the greater Belfast area.

As the Member said, the Programme for Government says:

"To create an economy that works for everyone, we will address four key challenges: productivity, good jobs, decarbonisation, and regional balance. Prioritising these areas will transform our economy, ensuring rewarding work for everyone, regardless of background, and spread economic prosperity across all areas."

That is a clear commitment from the Executive as a whole. It is obviously in draft form, but Executive colleagues support that commitment, so I expect it to be held to. In the outworking of all this, what we have identified around resources is really about supporting local economic voices to come together, articulate their needs and, perhaps, pump-prime specific interventions that they want to be made. All the Departments are spending money in all the areas, and, if there is a very strong voice saying, "These are the key issues in our area that need to be addressed", I expect Departments to respond to that. It would make sense for them to make the most efficient use of their limited resources by spending on what will have the most impact on the areas in which they spend the money.

The point is well made. Planning reform is critical. We had a round-table meeting yesterday with the Minister for Communities, the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, who is a party colleague of the Member, and the Minister for Infrastructure. We have had this conversation with Infrastructure. The reform of planning will be critical because, if councils want to develop projects, they need to get them through their planning systems. The current bottleneck, particularly in the consultee process, places in jeopardy not only some of the ideas in the plan but, potentially, if we do not get the planning system sorted, all the Executive's infrastructure propositions. In some ways, that is a given. The Minister for Infrastructure has sought transformation funds to try to bring some level of reform. All his Executive colleagues will, I think, support it, because, just as we recognise the need for investment in water and sewerage infrastructure, we recognise that investment in planning reform will be essential to deliver on any of the projects that any Department wants to do.

Yes. Enterprise agencies have been doing sterling work, often on a shoestring budget, on start-ups and supporting local entrepreneurs. We have a very strong entrepreneurial flair right across the region. Invest NI will now have not only FDI targets but targets for start-up and business growth, which will make more collaboration possible in the space where the enterprise agencies work while trying to ensure that what they do gains more priority in that space. Enterprise agencies have a very strong presence in a lot of areas, and I imagine that they will want to be part of those discussions. They have a significant contribution to make given their significant knowledge of local businesses and of the potential of local start-ups, which will be one of the targets.

Significant work on regional balance has been undertaken to good effect in the South. That involved things like a land strategy to make sure that, if people wanted to start or grow businesses, they could do so in their areas, rather than have to relocate to larger, urban areas. There are good examples from other parts of the world and close at hand, south of the border. Our intention over the next three years is to put in a sum of money that we will identify to allow the programme to get started and to work. It is a commitment in the Programme for Government, and I therefore assume that whoever takes over the Economy Department after I have left will continue with the programme. It is an Executive priority to grow the economy in a regionally balanced way. That is the commitment of the entire Executive in the draft Programme for Government. I therefore expect that to be followed through, as we will want to follow through all the commitments that we make in the Programme for Government.

We are conscious that there are other structures in councils, and that is why we have not been prescriptive. Councils may look to merge those structures to have labour market plus economic development. That is a matter for dialogue over the next period, when we will do some intense workshops with councils in order to work through it. All councils are included. The amount of funding that may be delivered will be measured by level of need, and that formula will be worked through in the time ahead, but all councils are included.

Yes. Aside from this plan, I am engaged with the Department for Communities and the Department of Finance on a community wealth plan. We are doing joint work in that area on a couple of pilot schemes that, I hope, will demonstrate real value and will be able to be spread out to other areas. I met Belfast City Council's chief executive and group leaders. It is not my job to dictate what they do, but I suggested that, if there is additional support in the area that we have developed, Belfast may want to look at areas of deprivation and at trying to bring them all up. As she will know well from being a citizen of the city, some areas are doing very well and others very much feel left behind. This is an opportunity for councillors and other partners in the Belfast area to try to work on those areas and to look at levels of economic inactivity, skills and educational opportunities and at a general approach that leads to a stronger community and to more prosperity in those communities.

It will be financed from within the Department. We have to find the money, and money is tight, but it is about prioritising what we do. If the priority in the Programme for Government is about growing our economy in a regionally balanced way, we have to allocate our money according to the priority. We will find the money, and I hope that, over time, we may be able to develop more money and put more support into the approach, because it will yield benefits. Not having a sense of balanced economic growth has been a stubbornly persistent problem for decades. Yes, we will find the money in the first instance, but, if others are prepared to contribute, we will welcome that as well.

Yes. In the first instance, part of it is about recalibrating what the Department does. The Department has not persistently engaged at a local level. Invest NI has been engaged but not to the level or extent that it should have been, and that is why it was criticised in the report. However, the Department also needs to be on the ground more in dealing with councils. We will work closely. There will be a number of workshops with councils about how the partnerships will operate. It is not just a matter of keeping an eye on things; some councils need economic development capacity building. Other councils are very good at it, but some lag further behind. It is about supporting councils by capacity building so that they have a strong economic voice in the area. It is also about ensuring that the structure, as outlined, works according to the plan and that the funding that we want to allocate is delivered according to the plan.

I concur with the Member's view about the sterling work that Invest NI's people have done over many years. Nonetheless, there were criticisms of the overall approach that we needed to address. We are on a very clear and good pathway with the new team that heads up Invest NI and the staff who are turning to the particular project and direction of travel. It is not all about FDI. FDI is important, as the Member said, but the failing of Invest NI and, in many ways, perhaps, all of us over the years is that we measured it by how many jobs were brought in. We are not in that space now. FDI will continue to be important, but so will business start-ups and the growth of our businesses by those who come to invest here and, perhaps more importantly, by our indigenous businesses. The measurement of success will now be broader. To grow prosperity, we also have to tackle economic inactivity and skills. A significant focus for the Department, Invest NI and, I hope, some of the partnerships that will be set up will be to try to get opportunities for young people and others to upskill while they are in jobs and to make sure that we have more prosperous, better jobs and more regional balance in our economic prosperity. Invest NI will be recalibrated in the sense that it will not just be about FDI, although that will retain some importance. It is not about preventing anyone from setting up a business here. There is the ability to incentivise and encourage people to go to other areas, but it is not about preventing people from setting up in an area if that is what they choose.

The Minister of Finance leads the charge on that work along with the First Minister and the deputy First Minister. The pause is completely unacceptable. The decision was not only badly taken but badly communicated. I am glad that the decision on the Belfast region city deal and the Derry city deal was reversed quite quickly, but we need to see a quick reversal of the decision to pause the Causeway Coast and Glens growth deal and the Mid South West growth deal. It is not just about the public money from the Executive and from the Government in London that will go into the deals but about the confidence that business partners will have to stay with the deals. The sooner the decision is reversed, the sooner we can continue the momentum that we began to create when the Executive came back into office in February. We injected new momentum into the city and growth deals, and we want to see that continue in order to deliver the really good projects that they have in prospect.

2,185 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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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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