Coleraine and Londonderry to get £20m for regeneration, says Hunt

An additional £100m will be made available for spending by Stormont departments as a result of the Budget, the Chancellor has said.

There will also be one-off regeneration funds of £20m each for Londonderry and Coleraine.

The chancellor has been delivering his Budget in Commons.

The government has also allocated £2m to be spent on "global investment and trade opportunities for Northern Ireland".

Separately, the Shore Road Skills Centre project in north Belfast has been awarded £2.2m from the UK Levelling Up fund.

The project, which is being driven by Crusaders FC, lost out in a previous Levelling-Up funding round last year.

The chancellor also announced a further cut in National Insurance, reducing it from 10% to 8%.

National Insurance is a form of income tax on wages and self-employment profits.

It is currently paid at a rate of 10% on incomes between £12,570, and £50,270.

The measure for Coleraine is part of addressing historic underinvestment in nations and regions

The chancellor says the cut, which will come into force in April, will mean the average worker will see their National Insurance payment fall by £450 a year.

About 800,000 people in Northern Ireland pay National Insurance.

The Treasury said that combined with an earlier National Insurance cut at the Autumn Statement it will amount to a £620 average annual tax cut for workers in Northern Ireland.

It is the last scheduled Budget before the next general election, which is expected to take place later this year.

Mr Hunt said the measure was part of addressing historic underinvestment in the UK's nations and regions.

Stormont Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald, of Sinn Féin, said the financial outlook for public services remained "extremely challenging" and the extra money would not "make a dent."

"At a time when our hospitals, schools, infrastructure and other public services need bolstered, the chancellor has failed to provide adequate funding for devolved administrations," she added.

Jeremy Hunt posed with his red box for the traditional photo-op in Downing Street earlier

The money for Derry and Coleraine comes from the UK government's Towns Fund.

Typically money from that fund is earmarked to be spent over a decade and involves the establishment of a "Town Board" made up of local authorities, the local MP and other community leaders.

However, it is not clear what structure will be used in Northern Ireland.

"We are expanding the long-term plan for towns to 20 new places," the chancellor said, adding that Coleraine was on the list along with Darlington, Peterhead, Runcorn, Eastbourne, Harlow, among others.

It was welcomed by Democratic Unionist Party MP Gregory Campbell and assembly member Gary Middleton.

"This is a small but welcome boost over a longer period which hopefully an incoming government of whatever hue will stand over and possibly expand upon," Mr Campbell said.