Northern Ireland deserves a Budget that works properly, by maximising resources and matching them to clearly defined priorities and targets. But with just two per cent of the largest ever block grant settlement specifically allocated to Programme for Government priorities, the SDLP believe that this Budget falls short of the aspirations that were promised by the Executive just a few months ago.

The SDLP have proposed a five-point plan with real ambition as opposed to the listless more-of-the-same approach from the Executive. It demonstrates how a better budget could make better use of our resources to frontline services, while also investing more in long-term infrastructure. The SDLP’s Plan for Change outlined the priorities we would focus on to deliver for people across Northern Ireland. This document sets out our approach to funding them.

Our approach includes:

• Securing greater fiscal powers, including increased borrowing capacity to invest in long-term infrastructure and public services;
• Reviewing super-parity measures, ensuring every pound delivers maximum impact;
• Eliminating waste and inefficiency across government to redirect funds to where they are most needed.

Throughout this document, we highlight a key failing: the Executive repeatedly bemoans lack of funding but will not grasp opportunities to take more control of its own fiscal levers or explore innovative ways to secure more financing. If there is political consensus that centralised Treasury dictates and the vagaries of the Barnett formula are not a sensible way to run our finances, there must be a better solution than simply complaining about it. While future block grants must better reflect Northern Ireland’s needs, further inaction is not an option.

When the Executive returned in February 2024, there were widespread promises about a new approach to fiscal sustainability and a focus on transforming the public sector, but neither have materialised. Rather than doing what matters most, as the Programme for Government claims, the Executive has largely been doing more of the same.

The SDLP believes in genuinely changing the way we manage our finances.

We also propose innovative financial tools to unlock long-term investment, including:

• Establishing a Regional Investment Bank to support local development and enterprise;
• Developing shared cross-border budgets for projects that serve the entire island;
• Engaging with the European Investment Bank to leverage external funding.

To improve long-term sustainability, we would future-proof our finances by embedding principles of well-being, intergenerational fairness and equality into the heart of decision-making. We support:

• The return of multi-year budgeting to provide greater financial certainty and stability;
• The introduction of a Future Generations Act for Northern Ireland, ensuring every spending and policy decision reflects sustainability, intergenerational justice, and gender equality.

Our paper calls for real ambition and focus in how we Budget, improving processes here and now and taking an innovative approach to investing for the future.