Belfast Region City Deal

City Deals are bespoke packages of funding and decision-making powers negotiated between central government and local authorities. They're aimed at helping to harness additional investment, create new jobs and accelerate inclusive economic growth.

This short film outlines plans for the Belfast Region City Deal.

The Belfast Region City Deal (BRCD) comprises Belfast City Council, five partner councils, the region’s two universities and four of the region’s further education colleges. (Each link opens in a new window).

• Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council  
• Ards and North Down Borough Council 
• Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council 
• Mid and East Antrim Borough Council 
• Newry, Mourne and Down District Council 
• Queen's University Belfast 
• Ulster University 
• Belfast Metropolitan College 
• Northern Regional College 
• South Eastern Regional College 
• Southern Regional College 

The BRCD partners are working with the UK Government (link opens in new window) and the Northern Ireland Executive (link opens in new window) to develop and deliver the deal.

These partners have worked together intensively since 2017 to secure £1 billion of co-investment.  Their shared ambition is to accelerate inclusive economic growth for the region and to deliver thousands of new and better jobs, with pathways and support in place to make them accessible to people from all communities.

The BRCD partners, the NI Departments and the UK Government signed Heads of Terms in March 2019. This confirmed their joint commitment to implement the Belfast Region City Deal. We have now prepared outline business cases for our 20 ambitious projects, underpinned by an employability and skills programme.

A successful City Deal is about more than individual areas, it’s about working together to ensure that the deal benefits people living in the whole region, connecting them to more and better jobs and opportunities, and attracting further investment to the region.

The Belfast Region City Deal will see the UK Government invest £350 million into the Belfast Region, with a further co-investment of upwards of £150 million from Belfast Region City Deal partners. In May 2020 the NI Executive confirmed that it will provide match funding of £350 million towards the Belfast Region City Deal.

We’ve now examined all of our plans through the lens of the Covid-19 pandemic, and we’re confident that the delivery of our projects will contribute to the region's long-term recovery. It’s crucial that we continue to work at pace with all our partners in government and industry to progress a deal that will allow the combined government investment of £850million to start to flow into the region in 2021.

This investment will help strengthen the region’s business offer in growth sectors such as life and health sciences, the digital and creative industries, and advanced manufacturing. It will also support next generation digital capabilities, boost tourism and support the regeneration of our region, underpinned by infrastructure developments and investment in skills to connect people to jobs and services.

As a first step, the partner councils worked with city and region stakeholders, including politicians, the private sector, universities and colleges to complete a robust analysis of our competitive strengths, the key economic challenges facing the region – and what our most pressing needs are.

This research has helped to shape the four pillars of our ambitious proposition: 

• Innovation and digital
• Boosting tourism and regenerating our region 
• Infrastructure 
• Employability and skills 

BRCD partners fully support other deals for NI and will work to ensure that they are complementary to one another.