{"id":15672,"date":"2024-10-30T11:02:48","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T11:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/future-to-be-confirmed-after-budget-announcement\/"},"modified":"2024-10-30T11:02:48","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T11:02:48","slug":"future-to-be-confirmed-after-budget-announcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/future-to-be-confirmed-after-budget-announcement\/","title":{"rendered":"Future to be confirmed after budget announcement"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Bushmills is one of the areas that could benefit from a city deal<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The future of two of Northern Ireland’s City Deals is expected to be confirmed later as the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, delivers her budget.<\/p>\n

Funding for the Causeway Coast and Mid South West deals was “paused” during a pre-budget spending review.<\/p>\n

Stormont’s Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald said she hopes “common sense prevails”.<\/p>\n

“I’m very hopeful we will get clarity and I hope that we get the right decision,” she added.<\/p>\n

City Deals are regeneration funding packages worth more than \u00a31.5bn, with about \u00a3600m coming from central government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Stormont ministers will also find out what the budget will mean for their spending plans<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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There are four deals in Northern Ireland: Belfast City region, Derry City and Strabane, Mid South West region, and Causeway Coast and Glens.<\/p>\n

The funding pause provoked outrage among Northern Ireland leaders<\/a> with First Minister Michelle O’Neill describing the move as “deplorable”.<\/p>\n

The government later said it would “continue to work closely” with the Stormont Executive on the deals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Independent MLA Claire Sugden said it was still not clear why these two city deals were paused in the first place and is hopeful they can still go ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hearing more widely that this budget is going to be a more difficult one right across the United Kingdom and I just hope that the growth deal for Causeway Coast and Glens and indeed Mid South West as well is not a casualty of that,\u201d she told BBC Radio Foyle<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Need to start ‘as soon as possible’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Professor Liam Maguire is the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research at Ulster University and sits on the board of three out of the four deals. <\/p>\n

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme<\/a>, he said these city deals would “improve economic growth and productivity”.<\/p>\n

“These are really strong investment projects in local regions, and projects that have been decided by the local regions based on the strengths within those regions.<\/p>\n

“It really does align in terms of what the government currently want to do so we would be really hopeful that they can be resumed and work can restart and we can progress these projects as soon as we can,” Prof Maguire said.<\/p>\n

Chairman of the Mid South West Governance Steering Group Kevin Savage said he “really hopes that the news is positive today”.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re talking about a package of \u00a3252m from central government as well as the Executive so we really need this \u00a3126m from Westminster to progress this, and that will leverage additional funds as well from the private sector. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What are the deals?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Projects in the Causeway Coast and Glens deal include:<\/p>\n