Ritchie Calls For 25-Year Spending Pact With Treasury

RITCHIE CALLS FOR 25-YEAR SPENDING PACT WITH TREASURY SDLP Leader Margaret Ritchie MP has called for a 25-year compact with the Treasury which would free up the Executive to take the necessary action to rebalance the Northern Ireland economy and create jobs and economic growth. In a keynote speech to the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce, she said, “Let us have a 25 year framework economic and financial compact with the Treasury which maps out the future in terms of tax-varying powers, the creation of our own social security system and the long-term delivery of the Block Grant.” Ms Ritchie added that the long-term project of re-balancing the local economy would require the compact to be sustained even if the north’s constitutional position were to be changed democratically. She said, “We would undertake to very gradually reduce the subvention in the long-term but with a guaranteed level of Treasury support – even if the constitutional position of the North should change in the meantime. This is the only way we can truly take control of our own future.”]]>