Debate contribution: Local Growth Fund

Debate contribution by Mr Eóin Tennyson on 21 October 2025.

MLA

Mr Eóin Tennyson

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

21 October 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Local Growth Fund

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5197373

Read the official Assembly record

Text

The community and voluntary sector has always stepped up where government has fallen short, plugging gaps in vital public service provision and working with people and communities who are furthest from opportunity. The benefits of the European social fund and the European regional development fund (ERDF) in supporting that work was clear. Between 2014 and 2020, those funds collectively provided an average of £65 million a year to Northern Ireland. That money helped tackle economic inactivity, promote social inclusion, enhance the competitiveness of small and medium-sized businesses and support research and development. In my time as an MLA, I have been privileged to meet many of the organisations that deliver projects on the ground. Their work is second to none. European funding, however, was cast aside as collateral in the reckless and ideological pursuit of a hard Brexit, with those organisations treated shamefully and left peering over a financial cliff edge as a result. I found the contribution from the Member who spoke previously to be galling. To claim that the situation was not inevitable or foreseeable and to believe that, after leaving the EU, money would not be clawed back to be invested in England is the height of naivety. We were sold a pup by English nationalists in the Conservative Party. The DUP in particular owes the organisations that it sacrificed on the chopping block an apology for its conduct over the past 10 years. Nobody who has taken the position that the Member has can credibly claim to be a champion of our community and voluntary sector. Eventually, it has to be said, a replacement fund emerged in the form of the Shared Prosperity Fund, but, far from being the like-for-like replacement funding that was promised, the scheme failed to live up to its predecessors in either quantum or design. Despite the setbacks and frustrations, our community and voluntary sector stepped up and responded with agility, often by submitting consortium bids in order to preserve as many of the services that they offered as possible. Between April 2023 and March 2025, £57 million was committed to Northern Ireland, with 18 projects supported. Almost 24,000 people were supported in that period, with 5,000 moving into employment and almost 8,000 moving into further education or training. Despite that clear success, those organisations are now peering over another cliff edge and facing another funding crisis, as the Shared Prosperity Fund is due to come to an end in March 2026. That will jeopardise 650 jobs and the progress that has been made, as well as the position of individuals who rely on those organisations' support. I am deeply concerned about the UK Government's approach to the Shared Prosperity Fund's proposed successor, the local growth fund. The majority of the £46 million allocated in the spending review to that fund is capital money, which clearly will not meet the organisations' resource needs. It is shameful that, once again, promises that were made to those very organisations are being broken, with uncertainty looming large. That uncertainty hits our community and voluntary sector harder than any other sector in our economy. Staff have to be placed on notice and preparation has to be undertaken to deliver services differently or to cease delivering them altogether. Once staff and vital services are lost, it is almost impossible to replace them. That will result in a false economy, heaping yet further pressure on our public services, which are already struggling. It is particularly shameful that the Government profess to care about economic inactivity while simultaneously gambling with funding for organisations with a proven track record of getting people into work and education. The least that we can do for the sector and its service users is to deliver sustainable funding to support the positive change that they make in our society. We need urgent confirmation that the Government will deliver targeted employment support for those furthest from the labour market. We need to ensure that any scheme builds on the successes of existing schemes, that funding is at least maintained at current levels, adjusted for inflation and rising costs, and that contingency plans and transitional arrangements are in place to avoid any service disruption in the interim. Alliance has consistently raised those issues with the Secretary of State. Today, parties, despite our different perspectives, have an opportunity to unite to send a clear message that those organisations and their vital schemes must not be abandoned and to reaffirm our commitment to build an economy and society that works for all, in which everyone, regardless of background or ability, has the chance to belong, contribute and succeed. I hope that all parties will support the motion.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:32 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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