![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0fe10705-f440-4ccb-aee8-4786e4b995df.jpg.webp.webp\")
Image source, PA Media<\/p>\nSecretary of State announces support scheme expansion to NIpublished at 14:44 BST<\/p>\n
14:44 BST<\/p>\n
Image source, PA Media<\/p>\n
In a statement issued during the executive press conference, the Secretary of State for NI Hilary Benn announces the expansion of the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) to Northern Ireland. <\/p>\n
The BICS is a scheme which cuts bills by up to 25% for over 10,000 manufacturers from April 2027, with no increase to household and business energy bills. <\/p>\n
It also includes a one-off additional payment in 2027 to be rolled out to an extra 3,000 businesses and cover support firms would have received from April 2026.<\/p>\n
Hilary Benn said he is “pleased to confirm that
\nthe UK Government will provide the Northern Ireland Executive with equivalent
\nfunding to develop a comparable scheme in Northern Ireland, subject to business
\ncase approval”.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the latest in a
\nnumber of steps the UK Government is taking to provide vital and timely support
\nfor businesses and households with energy costs. <\/p>\n
\u201cEnergy policy sits with the
\nNorthern Ireland Executive, and the Government will continue to engage with
\nNorthern Ireland ministers to ensure we are providing support to those most
\naffected.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new funding comes on top of the
\n Executive\u2019s \u00a319.3bn on average funding settlement in each year of the
\n Spending Review, as well as the additional \u00a3390 million announced at the Spring Statement.<\/p>\n
Asked to comment on news of the funding, Finance Minister John O\u2019Dowd said he had been in the executive all morning but would examine the detail.<\/p>\n
Asked if it was proof the government had listened to the executive\u2019s pleas, he said that it was not clear \u201chow much they had listened or who they had listened to\u201d, and that it will take time to work through the information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Secretary of State announces support scheme expansion to NIpublished at 14:44 BST 14:44 BST Image source, PA Media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-534238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}