Holywell Trust Leadership Collective meet politicians in call for Catch-Up Cash for the North West

A delegation of North West leaders from the voluntary, community, public and private sectors have met with elected representatives at Stormont this week with the Holywell Trust Leadership Collective.

Leadership Collective members with Minister Andrew Muir - 22/9/25

The Leadership Collective were launching the start of a vision process on “The Way Forward” highlighting the challenges arising from regional disparities, and aimed at presenting solutions, opportunities and benefits for the North West in addressing these imbalances.

In a month when Derry City & Strabane District Council area ranked 357 out of 359* UK council regions as a place to be born, grow up and grow old, highlighting stark regional disparities in factors including child poverty and disposable income, the Stormont event was timely.  (ILC International Longevity Centre UK Better Lives Index Introducing the UK Better Lives Index - ILCUK)

The NI Department of Health’s Health Inequalities Annual Report published in recent weeks also highlighted the disproportionate impacts on people in the North West, including drug and alcohol related harms and teenage pregnancy.  Of 32 indicators in the Report, almost half (15) were worse in Derry and Strabane than the Northern Ireland average and no indicator was better. 

Life expectancy for both men and women in the area is lower than the Northern Ireland average by around a year, with the most deprived areas of the District showing life expectancy at over 6 years less than the NI average for men, and almost 5 years less for females.

Gerard Deane, Director of the Holywell Trust explained the aims of the Leadership Collective in highlighting these issues.  He said,

“In the North West, regional imbalance is not a new issue.  The impact has been felt for decades and something as basic as life expectancy is a stark indicator of the human impact of public services in this area being left behind. 

“The cross-border Leadership Collective brings together leaders from across this region, with a broad range of experience and insight. Rather than just shining a light on the problems, they are dedicating themselves to coming up with solutions and opportunities for a Way Forward. 

“Their project will bring together a comprehensive picture of facts and figures on measures of socio-economic performance, like jobs, skills, infrastructure, education and health, as well as the comparative levels of investment which have been made in public services here. 

“The Holywell Trust Leadership Collective is calling on politicians across all government departments to recognise the human and economic impact of a failure to deliver a fair share of public investment to support the North West.  We’re in a dangerous cycle of under-investment that is manifesting in this region being seen as an economic burden on health, social care and welfare systems, not to mention the individual cost to people’s wellbeing.

“There is so much we can do to address this imbalance and leaders in the North West are not short of ideas, informed by their broad experience.  This project aims to help the Northern Ireland Executive to see how dedicated, ring-fenced investment in services in the North West are essential to help this region to catch up.  The North West can deliver much bigger bang for their buck and we’re aiming to show the full extent of the opportunities and benefits which are waiting to be unlocked by investing this “catch-up cash” in the North West.  We are very grateful to all of the elected representatives who spent time meeting with the Leadership Collective and engaging on this critical agenda.”

Leadership Collective members in Stormont - 22/9/25