Invest NI halts scheme funding amid budget crisis

Invest NI said it cannot enter into new spending commitments due to budget uncertainty

Invest NI has stopped funding two schemes to encourage business start-ups due to its budget crisis.

The Propel and Accelerator programmes provided grants and other support to entrepreneurs.

This week Invest NI said uncertainty about its budget meant it could not enter into any spending commitments for the new financial year.

As a result, it said it was not able to proceed with a new business case for Propel and Accelerator at this time.

The schemes were run by an organisation called IgniteNI.

Propel helped early-stage technology companies launch their business.

It was open to 20 companies a year providing them with a £15,000 grant, office space and mentoring.

Accelerator was for established technology companies which needed help scaling and raising further investment.

'Unequal playing field'

Ian Browne, chief operating officer at Ignite, said he was "sad" and "frustrated" by the decision which had come as Invest NI had been placed in an "impossible situation".

Mr Browne said the loss of the Propel programme would be particularly keenly felt as it helped promising entrepreneurs take the first step.

He said it the £15,000 grant had effectively allowed people to "quit their job and start a business".

"That's what starts the pipeline of talent," he explained.

"If you don't have that level of financial support it becomes a very unequal playing field so only people with the means can do it.

"You're going to end up with this widening inequality gap of people who can afford to do this and people who can't."

It has also emerged that Invest NI is not yet able to release funding to help businesses participate in trade shows in the coming financial year.

An aerospace industry source told the BBC that attendance at shows like Farnborough in July and Hamburg AIX in June are seen as "integral to the rebuilding of the aero sector in NI".