The Budget will deliver an extra £270 million funding to the Stormont Executive, the Government has said.
As well as extra money flowing to the region under the Barnett formula for allocating money to the devolved administrations, Chancellor John Healey also announced direct Treasury investment of £7.5 million for a Queen’s University-led hub specialising in research and development in the cyber and AI industries.
The Budget also allocated £1 million of direct funding for a Northern Ireland investment summit.
The Government said the summit will focus on strengthening east-west trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, and will also highlight the region’s “potential” under post-Brexit rules that mean it is the “only place in the world with dual access to the UK internal market and EU market”.
Under the Barnett formula, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland receive funding for devolved matters under their responsibility if the Government increases central investment in those areas in England.
In Wednesday’s budget, that included Mr Healey’s headline move to provide a £100 cost-of-living payment to around 20 million households in qualifying council tax bands.
It will be for Stormont ministers to consider whether they introduce a similar scheme using the Barnett consequentials flowing from the introduction of the policy in England.
The £270 million Barnett allocation for Northern Ireland is spread across the current spending review period, which ends in 2029. Of the total, £131 million will be available to Stormont in the current financial year.
Other Budget measures affecting Northern Ireland include:
– The Budget has extended a temporary 0% VAT rate on domestic electricity bills for a further three months, to July 2027. This support has been delivered via an alternative mechanism in Northern Ireland, namely a £63 one-off payment, due to complications related to post-Brexit rules on VAT that apply in the region. The Treasury said it will provide funding for the Stormont Executive to provide comparable support with household electricity bills. However, it added that the VAT relief measure was expected to apply in Northern Ireland from next April.
– The Budget introduced a British industrial competitiveness scheme to reduce costs for electricity-intensive manufacturing industries in Great Britain. The Treasury said the Northern Ireland Executive will receive funding to deliver a comparable scheme.
– As part of investment in defence skills, the Government is to establish new defence technical excellence colleges in Scotland and Wales. The Treasury said it would work with Stormont ministers on a “region-wide defence skills and apprenticeship programme”.
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