Invest NI confirm funding for Derry ‘Go For It’ business start-up scheme will be coming

The Northern Ireland Business Start-Up Programme (NIBSUP) has been delivered since September 2017 and is currently funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Invest NI and 11 councils.

However, the end of March 2023 marks the final date for expenditure of EU funding and is also the break point in the current delivery contract for the NIBSUP - also called Go For It.

Councils have contributed 20% of costs whilst ERDF and Invest NI resources have made up the remaining 80% contribution with each Council having a dedicated statutory job creation target.

Members of Derry City and Strabane Business and Development Committee were informed by council’s Head of Business Kevin O’Connor at the October meeting after SDLP councillor Rory Farrell had raised his concerns last month, saying: “We have had no clarity from Invest NI at all in terms of: are they going to support us to deliver this; are they going to support local job creation?”

Councillor Farrell subsequently asked the council officer when there would be ‘clarity’ from Invest NI on whether or not they will make a contribution and at what level.

Responding to Councillor Farrell’s request for an update, Mr O’Connor said: “The meeting has taken place and Invest NI have confirmed that they will be in a position to come in with funding for the next financial year.

"The quantum of that they haven’t confirmed, they are still working through some detail on that but they are very positive.

“I have an initial figure but I would rather not say today because there are some 'i's to be dotted and 't's to be crossed but they have confirmed they are going to come in on top of the figure that the Department for Levelling Up are going to come in with which is really good news.

“Hopefully, in terms of a firm paper to take back to this committee, I would imagine that at the next committee meeting we will have more detail on what exactly that’s going to look like and what that is going to mean for us as a council in terms of our exposure to the programme.”

The Ballyarnett elected representative asked the council officer if Invest NI had any plans to present to council.

“I had a look at the Invest NI website over the weekend and I found on there a council briefing from June 2022 which detailed the performance and outputs across Derry and Strabane for the past year and in fact the last five years,” he said.

“The document is online but we haven’t actually had the council briefing so are we expecting a delegation from Invest NI in the near future because I know they were regular attenders here which was really, really welcome. We haven’t seen them in a while, will we be seeing them shortly?”

Mr. O’Connor confirmed he would contact Invest NI to ask if they would bring a deputation.