Report on North's economic agencies to leave Foster with stark choice

BELFAST BRIEFING:The Northern Executive is going to have to cut the budget by an estimated £370 million, writes FRANCESS McDONNELL

A DOUBLE whammy of cuts and criticism will see the North’s economy under renewed attack this week on several fronts.

The first storm will hit home today with the publication of a much anticipated, no-holds barred investigation into how key economic agencies operate in Northern Ireland.

The independent review was commissioned by the North’s Minister of the Economy, Arlene Foster, last year and led by the vice-chancellor of the University of Ulster, Prof Richard Barnett.

It has examined in depth how well the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment and Invest NI, the regional economic development agency, are living up to their job descriptions.

Barnett asked business people and influential bodies in the North to tell him whether they thought current economic policy was working.

Unsurprisingly nobody held back and the consensus appeared to be a loud and resounding “No”.

Their response highlighted what they saw as failings by local agencies and government departments to respond proactively to the challenges faced by indigenous businesses in the economic downturn.

Many business leaders also expressed the view privately that the agenda is driven by “civil servants” who have no real understanding of the pressures of running a business.

The findings reflect the vacuum between the ambitions of the Northern Executive to put the “economy at the heart of the programme for government” and the reality of actually achieving that goal.

Foster has been repeatedly caught in the middle of this but the results from the economic review could put her firmly in the driving seat.

She has a stark choice to make: either she takes on board the feedback and implements drastic changes to current economic policy and the structure of government agencies or she simply buries the economic review report and hands responsibility for helping to create a stronger and more vibrant economy to someone else.

Ironically, the publication of Barnett’s investigation into economic development policies and local economic agencies could not come at a worse time.

Minister of Finance Sammy Wilson has warned that Northern Ireland is facing “tough choices” when it comes to public-sector spending.

He revealed that the Executive is going to have to cut the budget for the 2010/2011 financial year by an estimated £370 million (€401 million). Wilson says there is no escaping the fact that the slowdown in UK public expenditure growth is going to have a major impact on the local economy.

It may have come as a shock to some of his ministerial colleagues that they are going to have an almighty struggle on their hands to balance the Executive’s books.

To others, though, particularly the many local economists who have been warning of a doomsday scenario regarding the local budget, there is a sad air of inevitability about the proposed cuts.

Northern Ireland’s political leaders have been on a spending spree since the devolved administration was restored at Stormont on May 8th, 2007.

There has been one crowd- pleasing, vote-winning gesture after another from free travel for older people to freezing rates and providing free prescriptions.

When politicians write these kinds of cheques, though, they still have to be cashed and the Bank of Northern Ireland plc may not be able to honour them.

Foster and Wilson have a mammoth task on their hands – the multimillion-pound question is whether they are up to the task.

If they are not, the people who are going to suffer at the end of the day are going to be the likes of Ruth Morrow and Trish Belford.

Morrow and Belford have just won the Northern Ireland Science Park’s Connect award for the “next big thing” and a cheque for £10,000.

Morrow and Belford co- founded the Tactility Factory, a spin-out company from University of Ulster which has patented technology designed to combine textile design with hard building materials such as concrete.

The Tactility Factory is just one of many fledgling companies in the North with flair and ambition but its future is tied up with political leaders coming up with a plan to help them succeed.

This week will be a good test of whether politicians can cut it.