TO say the recent Northern Ireland emergency budget, drawn up by the Secretary of State was disappointing, was the understatement of the year. In fact, it was a missed opportunity to address many of the difficulties our retail sector is experiencing.
I fully appreciate that in the absence of both devolution and a Programme for Government, it is not easy for the Secretary of State to set a budget for our local government departments.
However the budget could have included two important elements - Business Rates and the Future High Streets Fund.
At the last UK Budget, the Chancellor gave independent retailers In England a third off their rate bills. In the recent Northern Ireland budget their Northern Ireland counterparts didn’t receive this reduction. Instead they actually received a 2 per cent increase in their rates.
Let’s be very clear - our system of antiquated business rates is broken and not fit for purpose in the 21st century. It is a scandal that Northern Ireland has now the highest business rates in the UK, which is restricting the growth of our retail, hospitality and SME sectors.
In setting the Northern Ireland Budget, the Secretary of State had the option to lower the Regional Rate, potentially bringing us into line with the rest of the UK. She chose not to.
In his budget, the Chancellor established a £675m Future High Streets Fund to support town centre regeneration. Through the Barnett formula, Northern Ireland’s share of this fund would have been £20m. In our discussions with the NIO, we suggested that this £20m should be equally divided up amongst our eleven local councils.
However, Northern Ireland did not receive a penny of this fund. Out of all the regions of the UK, Northern Ireland has the highest shop vacancy rate and desperately needed this vital funding.
All of this goes to prove that we need the Executive restored and local ministers making the key budgetary decisions based on sound evidence-based policy. The business community deserves more than a ‘care and maintenance’ administration and badly thought out emergency budgets.
We need to see real leadership by our local political parties and an end to the blame game. Meaningful all party talks need to begin immediately. 2019 cannot be yet another year with no government, no political progress and economic stagnation.
With much-needed decisions not being made on reform of business rates and infrastructure investment, not addressing an ever-growing skills gap and modernisation of our town centres, Northern Ireland is not just lagging behind the rest of the UK and Ireland, it is in real danger of being left behind internationally.
When the political talks do begin again, we believe that a fourth strand should be established to include key civic society organisations supporting the parties in building a genuine partnership approach to a rebooted economic agenda and a radically different and more ambitious programme for government.
Retail NI has an ambitious vision for the future of Northern Ireland and its economy. We have launched our Regeneration NI document setting out how we create 21st century town centres, reinvent retail and fix our broken rating system.
‘The Plan’ sets out how we can turn our towns and city centres into eco-systems of innovation.
We want Northern Ireland to be the best region in these islands to locate and start a business, to shop and socialise; we want it to be an outward-looking, confident, tolerant and inclusive region that has something to give to the rest of the world.
Political parties – it’s over to you!
