“The £17 million announced by the British Government is clearly inadequate,” Ms Archibald told MLAs on Monday. In addition, she said that further energy supports would also be rolled out on July 1 pending the approval of the Executive. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves leaving 11 Downing Street, London (Aaron Chown/PA)A package of £81 million for Northern Ireland was announced in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget to help with energy bills. She said the necessary statutory instrument to roll out the scheme in Northern Ireland was tabled at Westminster last Monday and will be in place from June. “Despite originally having been excluded from the British Government scheme, I secured approval to implement a similar scheme here.

Source: The Herald March 23, 2026 16:33 UTC