The Northern Ireland Executive\u2019s spending is funded from a variety of sources, including the \u2018block grant\u2019 allocation from the UK Government, borrowing, and locally raised revenue. The Northern Ireland Executive can currently borrow up to £200m per year, up to a total of £3bn, from the UK\u2019s National Loans Fund (NLF), through the Reinvestment and Reform Initiative (RRI).<\/p>
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Any loans from the European Investment Bank which were additional to the NLF borrowing would, like the existing facility, count towards the UK\u2019s overall Public Sector Net Cash Requirement (PSNCR) and would have the effect of increasing the overall level of public spending. For this reason, any Northern Ireland Executive borrowing needs to be within the £200m per year limits which are provided for within the devolved administration\u2019s total budgets each year. Any increases in borrowing beyond the agreed limits must be offset by reductions in other spending to avoid adding to the overall limits on public spending set out by the Government. Such reductions could be enforced by cuts to the \u2018block grant\u2019 portion of NI budgets if the Northern Ireland Executive did not make other offsetting savings.<\/p>
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It is important to recognise that bodies other than the Northern Ireland Executive can bid for EIB loans in Northern Ireland. In January 2014, the University of Ulster secured a £150m loan to help build its new Belfast campus, and the Northern Ireland Finance Minister has been encouraging councils within the new local authority structures in Northern Ireland to consider the EIB as a source of finance for infrastructure investment.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1535", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Danny Alexander"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Danny Alexander"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2014-07-28", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2014-07-28T09:27:22.8865135Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "14"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Treasury"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "CaTreasury"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2014-07-10", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "EU Grants and Loans"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, under what circumstances the use of European Investment Bank loans by the Northern Ireland Executive would lead to a reduction in the block grant from his Department.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/441", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mr Ivan Lewis"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Bury South"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Mr Ivan Lewis"} ], "uin" : "205168"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/63186", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "HM Treasury"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/63186/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
I wrote to the Northern Ireland Minister for Finance and Personnel on 31 March to set out that that the Northern Ireland Executive's funding allocations would be reduced by £13m, £87m and £114m for 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 respectively.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1535", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Danny Alexander"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Danny Alexander"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2014-06-30", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2014-06-30T14:48:15.1716516Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "14"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Treasury"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "CaTreasury"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2014-06-23", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Welfare State: Northern Ireland"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the current value is of all financial penalties imposed on the Northern Ireland Executive as a result of that body not implementing the Government's welfare reform policy.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/441", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mr Ivan Lewis"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Bury South"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Mr Ivan Lewis"} ], "uin" : "201864"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 2, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }