To ask the Minister for the Economy how the Belfast Local Economic Partnership will ensure that investment reaches North Belfast, given that it contains five of Northern Ireland’s ten most deprived areas.

Dr Archibald

In establishing the £45 million regional balance fund, I have empowered councils, working with businesses and community partners in local economic partnerships (LEPs) to identify their own priorities and bring forward locally led projects to increase productivity. Decisions on what to deliver and where to deliver it are taken by the Belfast local economic partnership. I am pleased to report that the Belfast LEP has agreed an action plan for 2026-28. The plan includes flexibility to target support by location through, for example, enhanced business support that can be directed to specific parts of the city. Importantly, the plan is not yet fully allocated, with around £938,000 still to be committed, giving the partnership further scope to bring forward additional targeted interventions as priorities are refined. Taken together, that local decision-making, the built-in flexibility and the remaining funding will give the Belfast LEP lots of opportunities to target actions to the groups that it deems to be most appropriate.

Mr Speaker

We move on to topicals.