Debate contribution: Cost of Doing Business

Debate contribution by Ms Diane Forsythe on 2 June 2025.

MLA

Ms Diane Forsythe

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

2 June 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Cost of Doing Business

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4981653

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. We have been long aware of the pressures on our local businesses across many sectors, including childcare, which underpins all sectors. The Labour Government's announcement in October about the increase in employers' National Insurance contributions and the rate of the minimum wage at short notice and without warning was a huge blow to businesses, especially in Northern Ireland where our economy has a high number of small businesses. The Finance Committee had a joint Committee event with the Economy Committee on all those issues. We then issued a report outlining the issues and brought that to the Chamber. The previous Finance Minister also commissioned a review of the cost of doing business from Ulster University. Its sentiment was welcome, as it recognised the need of the sector, but, on its completion, it outlined nothing new. All the same issues that we have been lobbied on at length and have worked through were laid down again in more detail. However, as the report was commissioned by our Northern Ireland Finance Minister, the hope was that, on its completion, the Finance Minister would use it as a basis to take firm action to support under-pressure local businesses in Northern Ireland. However, that does not appear to be the case. I agree with the point in the motion that the Minister needs to do more than just forward the report to the Treasury. This morning, I heard the Finance Minister say on the radio that he was going to London today to meet the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and the two key points that he said he would make were on increasing the level of funding need for Northern Ireland and funding for Casement Park. The case for increasing the level of funding need for Northern Ireland has been well made, and the campaign has been led by the DUP and Gavin Robinson MP for some years, so we welcome the Finance Minister's taking that up. However, it was disappointing that his other priority was to make the case not for struggling businesses here in Northern Ireland but for Casement Park. When the deputy First Minister recently met the Prime Minister, she took the opportunity to raise directly the pressures on Northern Ireland businesses from the increase in National Insurance contributions and the increase in the minimum wage and the pressures placed upon family farms. It is disappointing, therefore, that the Finance Minister will not take the opportunity to highlight those issues, but I hope that he will do so going forward. The cost of doing business research provides clear evidence of the challenges that are faced by businesses and how those vary across sectors. One would have thought that that evidence would provide the Minister with the ability to see what targeted support was required, yet it appears that the solution is to write to the Government. The Minister cannot shirk responsibility and must use the levers at his disposal. Our amendment seeks to enhance the original motion and include further powers that are at the Minister's disposal. High-street retailers have been complaining for years about the soaring cost of business rates, which is a property-based tax. They tend to pay far higher rates than online rivals that do not have stores to run. There is a long-standing need for the reform of business rates to reflect commercial realities and business trends. Additional pressures are placed on businesses as a result of the increase in their National Insurance contributions and the risk that online corporates can undercut retailers with a presence in our towns and high streets. Reality is laid bare in the cost of doing business report. The rates review, which the Minister of Finance and the Executive have agreed to undertake, is an important step in making sure that we continue to target and support businesses. However, that work must be expedited. The Minister must progress that work at pace. April has been and gone, and businesses face numerous challenges due to the changes in National Insurance and the living wage. Every Member in the Chamber has been lobbied by businesses that operate across retail, hospitality, childcare and healthcare that are lumbered with those additional burdens. Bespoke rates relief has been provided for retail, hospitality and leisure in England at a rate of 75% in recent years. In Wales, the rate relief is lower, at 40%, but it is still a crucial means of support for industries that have weathered the storm of the pandemic only to find themselves cast into a cost-of-living crisis where energy costs, other inputs and overheads are soaring. Work on non-domestic vacant rating is crucial. The current discount is helping to sustain the dereliction of our high streets and towns across Northern Ireland. We in the DUP have been champions of the manufacturing sector for many years and the delivery of the industrial derating policy ensures that manufacturers across Northern Ireland benefit from the rate relief that they deserve. Our amendment seeks to enhance the original motion. It calls for action, not just the re-gathering of groups and formation of new ones. We want to see real action from the Finance Minister in response to the cost of doing business report, on the previous recommendations of the high street task force report and on rates reform — sooner rather than later. Businesses in Northern Ireland need to see action. We need to see delivery to support our local businesses, grow the Northern Ireland economy and deliver on the commitment to making Northern Ireland work.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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