Debate contribution: Budget 2025-26
Debate contribution by Mr Brian Kingston on .
- MLA
- Mr Brian Kingston
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 19 May 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- Budget 2025-26
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4968672
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I rise as a DUP member of the Committee for Communities, along with my colleague Maurice Bradley and further to the Budget briefing that we received at the Committee on 8 May. We note with concern that the allocation to the Department for Communities for the new financial year has left a shortfall compared with the bid from the Minister. Whilst that is not a unique outcome, it has resulted in shortfalls in various work streams. Despite that, we welcome the fact that the Minister has made some important additional allocations, mentioning first the increase of £2·8 million to voluntary and community sector groups to cope with increases in employers' National Insurance contributions, the real living wage and other inflationary pressures. That need for groups receiving neighbourhood renewal funding was raised with the Minister during his recent visit to meet groups in Ballysillan and other parts of North Belfast. They also highlighted the need for confirmation of funding for the remainder of this financial year, which, we trust, will follow on quickly from the passing of the Budget Bill today. Likewise, there is an increase of £3·8 million for various arm's-length bodies, and also to be welcomed is the additional £3·7 million for the Supporting People programme and other measures to tackle homelessness. For the administration of social security benefits, we welcome the funding of an extra 400 staff for this year, although that is not yet recurrent. The Minister has expressed his commitment to reducing error and fraud in the benefit system, with the potential to retain a substantial percentage of the resulting savings to fund public services in Northern Ireland through invest to save. We urge the Minister and officials to continue to make the case for that to His Majesty's Treasury and the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Turning to the departmental capital budget for 2025-26, the allocation of £270 million capital DEL and £48·1 million financial transactions capital regrettably left a substantial shortfall of £161·3 million in the Department's bid, which is greatly disappointing. There is a desire to increase that allocation during the year, although we understand that in-year monitoring rounds are expected to result in lesser amounts than in previous years. Whilst the budget for new social housing during this year currently provides for 1,000 new units, we acknowledge that the Minister has brought forward some innovative ideas to address housing need. They include financial transactions capital to support intermediate rent; the purchase of 600 properties for emergency accommodation to take pressure off non-standard emergency accommodation; and, in the review of the points system, the removal of intimidation points, which were deemed by many to be unfair. Finally, we had a briefing at the same Committee meeting on staffing levels, particularly for the administration of social security both in Northern Ireland and in GB through the Department for Work and Pensions. Currently, 22% of positions are vacant. There is a need to increase the rate of recruitment and to consider whether all posts are needed or whether appraisal of them could result in efficiency savings. Those are matters that the Committee will continue to monitor and will come back to.
525 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.94).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.97).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.03 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.03 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.94 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.97 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.01 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.02 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.85 |
| Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism | 0.04 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.04 |
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.03 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.02 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:38 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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