The future of two of the Northern Ireland City Deals is expected to be confirmed later when Chancellor Rachel Reeves announces her budget.

Funding for the Causeway Coast and Mid-South West deals has been “paused” during the pre-budget spending review.

Stormont Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald said he hoped “common sense will prevail”.

“I am very hopeful that we will gain clarity and I hope that we will make the right decision,” he added.

City Deals are regeneration funding packages worth more than £1.5bn, with around £600m coming from central government.

There are four agreements in Northern Ireland: the Belfast City region, Derry City and Strabane, the Central South West region and the Causeway Coast and Glens.

Funding pause provoked Anger among Northern Ireland leaders First Minister Michelle O’Neill described the move as “pathetic”.

The government later said it would “continue to work closely” with the Stormont Executive on the agreements.

Stormont ministers will also hear what the budget means for spending plans.

We need to start ‘as soon as possible’

Professor Liam Maguire is Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research at Ulster Ulster and sits on the boards of three of the four deals.

To talk BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programHe said this city deal would “increase economic growth and productivity.”

“These are really strong investment projects in local areas, and projects that local areas decide on based on the strengths in those areas.

“It really aligns with what the government wants to do at the moment, so we’re really hopeful that these can be continued, work can start again and we can progress these projects as quickly as possible,” Prof Maguire said.

Kevin Savage, Chair of the Mid-South West Governance Steering Group, said he “really hoped the news was positive today”.

“We’re talking about a £252 million package from central government and the Executive, so we really need that £126 million from Westminster to take that forward and that will provide additional funding from the private sector as well.

“You’re talking about a total of £300 million for the mid-south west in the region, that’s a huge amount of money that we really need in the region, we’ve got great projects and we need to get them forward as quickly as possible,” Mr Savage said.

Devolved administrations receive additional money when a spending decision is made for England.

This funding is allocated using a population-based calculation called the Barnett formula, with additional expenses known as Barnett results.

The Exec can expect to receive results from Barnett this year totaling £500 million, the finance minister said.

The chancellor has warned that his budget will include “tough decisions”, including tax rises to help pay for public services.

It plans to increase employer national insurance, a tax that employers pay on their workers’ earnings.

‘Quite difficult’

Chancellor announced National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage increase on Tuesday.

Steven Orr started his bagel business with his wife Kirsty about three years ago during the pandemic.

They opened their first store in Belfast city center last week.

Steven is worried this announcement might affect his hiring plans.

He said: “For most people in the hospitality industry employee costs are the biggest cost, rent and electricity are big but employee costs are the biggest cost we pay.”

“For most of us, we will either not hire new people or try to do more in less time with the people we have, which is always quite difficult when you are already busy.

“So when you want to have an extra person to fill the gap, he tries to squeeze in little bits here and there,” he added.

‘Difficult’

The Chancellor expects to announce an increase in national insurance contributions paid by employers, as well as a lowering of the threshold for starting to pay them.

“We’re right next to the university here, we have a lot of student workers, so lowering the threshold means the costs of hiring those people for a good part-time student worker will go up.”

He doesn’t think employers should bear the burden of the need for increased tax revenue.

“Everyone has been talking about the cost of living crisis for the last few years, but it’s more like the cost of jobs crisis because there are businesses that have increased wages, on the commercial side electricity has increased much more than on the residential side, and on the residential side every material has increased.

“Then people complain when you have to raise prices.”

“Every business I know is just trying to meet and cut profit margins, but that’s why so many independent bakeries and cafes are closing all the time and you’re seeing more big chains coming to town.”

“It’s tough; we just knew times were tough for the last three years.”