The leaders of the five main Stormont parties have sent a joint letter to Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn, and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones, calling on them to restore two City and Growth Deals.
On Friday evening the Government announced that they had paused funding for four City and Growth Deals across Northern Ireland.
It has since been revealed the Belfast City Region and the Derry City and Strabane deals will go ahead.
The party leaders are calling on the funding for the Causeway Coast and Glens and Mid South West growth deals to be unpaused.
The letter was co-signed by Michelle O’Neill MLA, Gavin Robinson MP, Naomi Long MLA, Mike Nesbitt MLA and Colum Eastwood MP.
Letter in full
We are writing following your meeting with the Finance Minister last night during which Dr Archibald urged you to reconsider the appalling decision to pause the Causeway Coast and Glens and Mid South West Growth Deals until the Spending Review.
The Executive and indeed elected members from right across the Assembly are united in our message that the pause must be lifted immediately for these Deals. In particular, there is considerable anger and frustration that a two-tier system is now operating between cities and rural regions.
Your government has spoken of its desire to spur economic growth and how key it is to improve prosperity. Local government and deal partners have invested considerable time, effort, commitment and enthusiasm into their Deals which will be a catalyst for economic growth and creating good jobs.
These Deals will bring vital investment to towns right across Northern Ireland. If you are serious about your manifesto commitment, then this pause must be ended immediately.
It should be recognised that City and Growth Deals are long-term funding packages spanning 10-15 years and the majority of the spend for these Growth Deals will not fall within the next Spending Review period.
Therefore, it is not appropriate to take such a short-term view of longer-term financial investment that will have a positive impact on the economic growth of these regions and Northern Ireland as a whole.
This short-sighted decision could risk private sector confidence in the investment, a key objective of the Deals, and cause lasting damage. Even a short pause will lead to loss of confidence and momentum. It has already resulted in considerable anger among local communities.
The Causeway Coast and Glens Growth Deal, which signed Heads of Terms in April has nine projects across the borough, from Dungiven to Bushmills – regeneration projects, exciting tourism projects, as well as three exciting food, pharmaceutical and business innovation centres which were due to be funded by the UK Government’s contribution.
The Mid South West Growth Deal has completed Strategic Outline Cases for its suite of projects, which were due to be announced this Autumn in a Heads of Terms Signing event. Included within these projects funded by UK Government are a Robotic automation Packaging Innovation Centre, an Agri-Bio Innovation Centre, Innovation programme and Green Energy Pilot.
We urge you to reverse the pause on these Deals and honour the commitments made to these Deals which will bring hope and prosperity for our citizens, communities, businesses and future generations.
