Why achieving regional balance is more than creating jobs outside Belfast

A shorter version of this article was originally published in the Irish News. 

Achieving a more balanced regional economy is about ensuring that people and businesses, wherever they are located, can access opportunity, build resilience, and contribute to sustainable growth.

In Northern Ireland, regional balance is a shared, long‑term endeavour that requires coordinated action across the public sector, councils, businesses, academia and communities. Getting it right is essential for inclusive growth and the overall productivity and competitiveness of our economy

In this article, Alison Currie outlines why regional balance matters, why job creation alone is no longer enough, and how Invest NI is working with businesses and partners to support growth that is genuinely felt across the whole region. 

There are many layers to achieving regional balance. Every region in Northern Ireland has different strengths, challenges and opportunities, so a ‘one-size-fits-all’ doesn’t work.  

According to research by Ulster University, a place-based approach is the best way of achieving regional balance. In its report, ‘Delivering balanced regional growth in Northern Ireland’, Ulster University gives insight into key place-based approaches to help improve regional growth.

Regional and local challenges – such as infrastructure, connectivity, the provision of services, planning and the availability of skills – require purposeful partnership and meaningful cooperation across all stakeholders and partners.

The Department for the Economy’s Sub-Regional Economic Plan reflects this, empowering local stakeholders to identify their own economic priorities and tackle barriers to growth.

Initiatives like the City and Growth Deals, Labour Market Partnerships, and the Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs) are part of a place-focused policy.  

The LEPs bring together councils, businesses, education institutions and civil society to help ensure that interventions are rooted in local insight, whether that’s addressing skills gaps, supporting entrepreneurship, or building the infrastructure needed to attract and retain investment. 

BDO’s employment index, which monitors trends in hiring intentions, headcount, and labour, continues to fall in the UK. We are seeing similar pressures in Northern Ireland with many businesses facing high vacancy rates, skills shortages, and reliance on temporary employees. As Northern Ireland is nearly at full employment, job creation is not the main economic driver anymore.  

With hiring intentions weakening and skills shortages persisting, we need to complement job creation with other ways to stimulate economic growth.

That’s why the Programme for Government and Department for the Economy’s Economic Vision are focused on boosting productivity, innovation, and encouraging growth through greater efficiency and higher output. Northern Ireland’s productivity is among the worst in the UK, and we want to move this dial.

That’s also why, within Invest NI’s Business Strategy, we have a strong focus on productivity and encouraging businesses to improve efficiency and increase exports. We have introduced initiatives such as the Agri-Food Investment Initiative, which aims to help increase efficiency, support capacity building, and growth through innovation and new product development.  

Job creation, however, is still important, and we continue to help our client companies create good quality jobs. In 2024/25, we supported 3,020 new good quality jobs across the region.