Ulster Unionist Finance Spokesperson, Philip Smith MLA, has responded to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement by saying it demonstrates the limitations of the Northern Ireland Executive’s policy.

Philip Smith said:

“The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement had a particular focus on increasing productivity and reducing the levels of public debt across the UK. Those are two points which the local Executive seem blissfully ignorant of. Northern Ireland’s productivity is amongst the lowest in the developed world and we have by far the largest level of indebtedness of any region in the UK, with almost three times the level of debt per head of population compared to Scotland.

“Whilst I welcome the £250m extra investment of infrastructure funding, it will further increase the need for the Northern Ireland Executive to develop and deliver a strategic investment programme in order to ensure debacles such the recent threat to the York Street Interchange are avoided.

“The confirmation that the Government will reduce the rate of the UK’s Corporation Tax to 17%, whilst anticipated, further undermines the Executive’s primary economic policy of reducing the rate in Northern Ireland. Given the speed at which the UK’s overall rate is being reduced, it only shows just how slow the Executive’s decision making around Corporation Tax has been. In fact, at today’s Finance Committee meeting we were told once again that agreement still needs to be reached on many of the main issues such as costs and projected benefits.

“The most surprising element of the Chancellor’s Statement however was just how conventional it was. Northern Ireland’s Finance Minister had previously announced he would not be able to produce a multi-year revenue budget because of the potential impact of this Autumn Statement on local finances. The reality is it appears that either the Finance Minister was out of the loop or the Executive grabbed the opportunity to postpone a budget lasting the duration of the Assembly.”