Pivotal has submitted a short response to the consultation on the Northern Ireland Executive draft Budget for 2025–26. We welcome the opportunity to provide comments on the draft Budget and commend the Executive on reaching this milestone. 

We note however it is another one–year Budget, and look forward to the UK Spending Review this spring providing multi–year allocations, to allow the NI Executive to set multi–year budgets from 2026–27 onwards. The main points in our response are:

1. Improvements should be made to the information provided about the draft Budget allocations to Departments
2. There is only a weak link between the draft Budget and the Programme for Government
3. Making public sector pay awards absorbs most of the available additional funding
4. The cliff–edge in 2026–27 is now approaching and needs to be resolved
5. Discussions about the level of need in Northern Ireland should not distract from other efforts to get the most out of NI’s available funding
6. Public services as currently configured are not affordable
7. Transformation needs to be an urgent priority in all public services
8. There is ever–increasing demand for public services, putting upward pressure on spending now and into the future
9. There is an accumulating list of current and future budgetary risks
10. Serious consideration of increased local revenue raising is needed
11. The draft Budget does not offer a solution to the crisis in Northern Ireland’s water infrastructure
12. The Executive should focus on growing Northern Ireland’s economy

Please see our full response for more details.