Revenue Raising NI Consultations

On 20 September the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland wrote to Permanent Secretaries of NICS departments directing that they launch public consultations on measures to support budget sustainability by raising additional revenue.

Each public consultation will be co-ordinated by the relevant Northern Ireland department.

The consultations will be launched as soon as they are ready to ensure those who want to provide their views have adequate time to contribute to the individual consultations. Links to the individual consultations will be available on this webpage when available.

Consultations being launched

Department	Consultation
Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs	Reducing compensation rate on bovine tuberculosis programme. Increasing College of Agriculture Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) tuition fees to the same level as in England.
Department for the Economy	Increasing university tuition fees*.
Department of Finance	The review of non-domestic rating support schemes, including non-domestic vacant property relief, industrial de-rating, freight transport relief, and the exemption for student halls of residence. The removal of domestic ratings allowances, including the early payment discount, the maximum capital value cap and the landlords’ allowance.
Department of Health	The introduction of prescription charges. The introduction of domiciliary care charges. The re-introduction of hospital car parking charges.
Department for Infrastructure	The introduction of domestic water and associated charges (this should also include the removal of non-domestic water allowances and charging for septic tank desludging). The increase of private street fees.

It is important that the public and all interested parties have an opportunity to consider the range of options being examined and to feed in their views.

* Please note that on 4 December 2023, the Northern Ireland Office confirmed that the consultation on increasing university tuition fees should proceed, without the student loan repayment period being extended to align with England. As this change was made after DoF launched the Financial Context for Revenue Raising Consultations, this change is not reflected in the text of the published documents.

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