OPINION PIECE: Sinéad McLaughlin Foyle MLA: Demonstrable need for Regional Balance Bill

Growing up in Derry, you do not need an economist or a government report to tell you our part of this island has not always had a fair deal.

You see it in young people who feel they have to leave home to find the career they want. You see it in the long-running battle to expand Magee. Local businesses know it too, having spent years working around infrastructure that should have been improved long ago.

None of this is new.

For decades, people in Derry have been told that regional balance matters. Successive governments have produced strategies and made commitments to address it.

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Some progress has been made and we should recognise that. Derry has fantastic businesses and huge economic potential.

But the gap remains. Employment in Derry and Strabane is below the Northern Ireland average, while economic inactivity is significantly higher.

Inequality is not only measured in jobs or wages. It can also be measured in people's health.

The Department of Health's 2026 Health Inequalities Report found that men living in the most deprived areas can expect to live over seven years less than those in the least deprived areas. The gap in healthy life expectancy is almost 15 years.

Behind those statistics are real people and families who want the opportunity to build a good life here in Derry.

That is why I decided that simply talking about regional balance was no longer enough.

This week, my Regional Balance Bill passed its Second Stage in the Assembly.

The principle behind it is simple. Where you live should not determine the opportunities you have.

My Bill would require the Executive to produce a long-term, legally binding framework for reducing regional disparities. Government would have to identify where gaps exist and set targets for reducing them. We would then be able to measure whether things are actually improving.

Every government department would also have to consider regional balance when developing policies.

That matters because turning Derry's economy around cannot be the responsibility of one department.

If we want more investment here, businesses need the infrastructure to support them. Expanding Magee matters because a stronger university can transform our economy. Better transport connections can open up opportunities people currently cannot access.

Government decisions are connected. Regional balance needs to become a "golden thread" running through the Executive rather than disappearing when Ministers or mandates change.

Accountability is also central to my Bill.

Government is very good at announcing investment, but spending money is not the same as changing outcomes. We need to know whether people in Derry are actually better off and whether the gap is getting smaller.

This is not about demanding special treatment for Derry. It is about equal treatment.

Before becoming an MLA, I had the privilege of leading the Chamber of Commerce in Derry. I saw the enormous potential of this city, but I also heard the frustration of businesses facing the same barriers year after year.

That experience is one of the reasons I brought this legislation forward.

I do not pretend one Bill will undo decades of imbalance overnight. It won't. But it can be a gamechanger in how government makes decisions. Regional disparities can no longer be something Ministers acknowledge but then fail to act on. My Bill would put them at the heart of decision-making and make government answer for whether those gaps are actually closing.

People in this city have heard promises about regional balance for long enough.

It is time to put it into law.