£4.4m for Derry & Strabane projects to tackle regional imbalance

Members of April’s Business and Culture Committee endorsed the acceptance of a Department for Economy Letter of Offer for £4.4million to deliver a scheme of funded projects under the Regional Balance Fund (RBF).

DfE assigned £45 million across all 11 Council’s to fund local economic development projects across the north by means of annual grants, and Derry City and Strabane District Council has been allocated funding to address ‘persistent economic underperformance including low productivity, lower household incomes and economic inactivity’, a Council officers’ report said. The report brought before the Council’s Business & Culture Committee on Tuesday added: “Supported by the Department and Invest NI, the LEP (Local Economic Partnership) developed an action plan in line with the Minister’s economic focus of creating good jobs, increasing productivity, improving regional balance and decarbonization.

“The action plan was then submitted in December 2025 for review [and] Department for Economy has now issued a letter of offer to Council for £4.4million under the auspices of the RBF for the period from 31 May 2025 to 31 March 2028.

“The scheme includes a resource grant of £1,685,848 and a capital grant of £2,715,152.”

Council’s action plan has identified 12 programmes, which will be delivered across the next two years.

Programmes include the Student Enterprise Programme, Future Leaders Student Placement Programme, Business Growth & Competitiveness Grant Scheme, and the AI Accelerator Programme.