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Chancellor promises to bring energy discount scheme to NI to lower the cost of living

energy pylons

Nadhim Zahawi will reaffirm the government’s intention to implement a Northern Ireland counterpart of the £400 energy bill cut.

Later, the chancellor will travel to Northern Ireland to meet with ministers and the agency in charge of regulating utilities.

The government created measures in May to assist all UK households with rising gasoline prices.

But it wasn’t obvious how the program would reach Northern Ireland because there wasn’t a functioning executive.

The administration, according to Mr Zahawi, is ‘absolutely committed’ to implementing comparable policies in Northern Ireland.

He noted in Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme, ‘We will make sure, working with the utility regulator and Northern Ireland economic and finance ministers, to deliver this [£400 discount] as we are of course delivering to the rest of the UK’

‘In the autumn, the £400 will start to decline.’

‘What I’m doing today is meeting with the regulator, meeting with the finance ministers, to make sure that operationally we’re doing everything in my power as the UK government to get this delivered.’

Mr Zahawi said he’d do all he could to get the money to Northern Ireland households simultaneously as the rest of the UK He added, ‘I want to make that commitment to them today.’

The government’s top objective, according to the chancellor, is to reinstate the power-sharing executive.

‘But operationally, to help people with the cost of energy, I have to focus now to make sure we get this money out the door, the £400 for families and households in Northern Ireland.’

On Wednesday morning, Mr Zahawi spoke on Northern Ireland’s cybersecurity industry during a visit to Queen’s University Belfast.

This week is not likely to see a declaration about the expansion of the energy bill discount program to Northern Ireland.

Normally, the Treasury would have paid Northern Ireland through a Barnett Consequential, as it had previously done with a £200 energy loan payment plan.

When changes in UK government spending have an impact on devolved services, it utilises the Barnett formula to determine additional money.

Normally, the Treasury would have paid Northern Ireland through a Barnett Consequential, as it had previously done with a £200 energy loan payment plan.

The Treasury claimed it was looking into alternative ways to apply the discount, but without a functioning Stormont government to approve the funds.

Deirdre Hargey, a Sinn Fein member and community minister, promised to warn Mr Zahawi that an immediate solution was required when they next met.

He said, ‘The quickest solution here is to have a functional government, but in the absence of that we’re having to find work arounds.’

Gregory Campbell, a member of parliament for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said the government was in charge of making sure residents in Northern Ireland benefited from the energy program since it had been launched.

He said, ‘The chancellor needs to get a pathway, announce it and get the money into people’s pockets.’

Matt is a Mathematics graduate with an in-depth knowledge of finance and accounting. His hobbies include playing squash, tennis, and scrambling in the mountains.

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