Northern Ireland’s Members of Parliament have once again reiterated their calls for a fair funding model for the region, ahead of the Chancellor’s budget announcement on Wednesday.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will set out her budget in the House of Commons on Wednesday, but a range of measures have already been reported.
The most significant revenue raiser for the Treasury is expected to be a raise in employers’ national insurance, thought to bring in as much as £20bn for public services.
DUP leader and MP for East Belfast, Gavin Robinson, spoke on the decisions that Keir Starmer‘s Labour Government have already made at the opening of a new constituency office on Friday.
“The first two months of their tenure demonstrated that such strength won’t always be used for good. They had the power to protect pensioners yet chose to pick their pockets instead. They had the power to develop and enhance City Deals that we, as a party secured, yet they threw them into jeopardy,” he said.
He also confirmed that his party sent a letter to the Treasury and repeated their calls for the two paused city deals to be unpaused.
Claire Hanna, leader of the SDLP and MP for Belfast South and Mid Down, has written to Rachel Reeves with “six key asks.”
They include “revitalizing public services by providing NI with a fair funding settlement based on genuine need, giving the Executive long-term certainty by outlining funding through to 2027 and working with Executive Ministers to develop a plan for ‘greater fiscal devolution’.”
She said: “We need to see a particular focus on providing a fairer funding settlement for Northern Ireland. It is now an accepted fact that our region hasn’t been funded appropriately and that we have our own unique needs and circumstances which the Chancellor must recognise. We need multi-year budgets from both London and Belfast and recognition that the current arrangements only encourage the Stormont’s Executive’s short-term and paint-by-numbers approach.
“Financial certainty, further fiscal devolution and a more constructive working relationship will better allow us to address our mounting challenges and create opportunities for the future, and that’s the message we are taking to the government. I hope to see a new economic vision, one that brings hope instead of hardship, in the Chancellor’s Budget this week.”
