Ratepayers face long-term i4C deficit as Council refuses to reveal projected cost
CGI design drawing for the proposed new i4C CleanTech Centre at St Patrick’s Link, in Ballymena.
Tuesday 22 September 2026
Mid and East Antrim ratepayers face the continuing financial impact of an operating deficit at Ballymena’s proposed £27.3 million i4C Innovation and CleanTech Centre — but Council has refused to disclose how large it expects that deficit to be.
The local authority has confirmed it will meet the operating deficit and that the commitment has already been incorporated into its long-term financial planning. This comes on top of a £6.787 million Council capital contribution towards constructing the facility.
Love Ballymena understands the project’s financial model currently forecasts a cumulative operating deficit of approximately £1.5 million over its first 30 years.
Council was specifically asked through a Freedom of Information request to confirm whether that figure was correct — or, if not, to provide its current projected cumulative surplus or deficit over 10, 20 and 30 years. It declined to disclose the figures, applying a commercial-interests exemption under the Freedom of Information Act.
Council confirms it will meet the deficit
CGI aerial view showing the i4C’s site plan at St Patrick’s Link in Ballymena.
The FOI response does, however, settle the important question of who carries the financial liability if income generated by i4C does not cover its running costs.
Love Ballymena asked:
“Who will meet any operating deficit generated by i4C? Will this ultimately be funded by Mid and East Antrim ratepayers, and has provision for this been incorporated into Council’s long-term financial planning?”
Council responded:
“Yes, Council will meet the operating deficit, and this has been incorporated into Council’s long-term financial planning.”
The response confirms the deficit will sit with Council finances rather than simply with the centre’s future operator. For ratepayers, the unanswered question is the scale of that continuing financial commitment.
How much will it cost
Love Ballymena also asked Council to provide the anticipated annual operating surplus or deficit and identify the year in which i4C is expected to break even on an annual operating basis.
Those figures were withheld. Council said the information, together with the related report and amended Outline Business Case, had been presented to its Environment and Economy Committee in closed session on 22 June 2026. It applied a separate Freedom of Information exemption relating to prohibitions on disclosure.
Council has also withheld the occupancy levels and rental income assumed in the financial model, as well as information about sensitivity testing examining what would happen if anticipated occupancy or income were not achieved. It again cited commercial interests.
The authority said its Outline Business Case contains detailed financial modelling, pricing assumptions, procurement strategies, projected costs, anticipated savings, risk assessments and other commercially sensitive information.
Council argues that disclosure would be likely to prejudice its commercial interests and those of potential third-party suppliers, weaken its negotiating position and potentially reduce its ability to obtain best value for public money.
The result is an unusual position for public scrutiny: Council has confirmed that it will meet i4C’s operating deficit and has planned financially for it, while withholding the figures showing how large that deficit is expected to be.
Council investment rises to £6.787m
Aerial map view showing location of the new i4C centre between the NRC campus, and the future site of the new Ballymena Leisure, Heath, and Wellbeing Centre on St Patrick’s Link, Ballymena.
The FOI response provides considerably more detail about the public money required to construct i4C.
The latest estimated capital cost is £27.287 million, comprising £20.5 million from the Belfast Region City Deal and £6.787 million from Mid and East Antrim Borough Council.
Council confirmed that a further £3.217 million was required because of construction inflation.
That additional funding means Council’s £6.787m capital commitment is separate from the operating deficit it has confirmed it will meet once the centre is running.
Smaller building after costs reached £29.124m
Rising construction costs have already resulted in a substantial redesign of the proposed centre.
The building has been reduced from approximately 7,000 square metres to 5,200 square metres, with Council saying the reduction was made to lower capital build costs in response to “unprecedented increases in construction inflation”.
Before that value-engineering exercise, the estimated capital cost had reached £29.124 million. The redesign reduced the projected cost to £27.287 million — a reduction of approximately £1.84 million.
Earlier Council material had described i4C as a £23.5 million, 7,000-square-metre facility, illustrating how both the proposed footprint and financial position have changed as the project has developed.
Updated business case remains confidential
CGI design drawing for the proposed new i4C CleanTech Centre at St Patrick’s Link, in Ballymena.
The business case underpinning the investment has also been amended.
Council said changes were approved by the Department of Finance on 2 June 2026 before being presented to elected members at the Environment and Economy Committee on 22 June.
But ratepayers will not currently be able to examine the updated document and its detailed financial projections themselves.
Asked whether the revised business case would be published so it could be scrutinised, Council said:
“The OBC and any revisions will become publicly available at some stage in future post completion of the project.”
That means detailed information including the projected operating position, break-even point, occupancy assumptions and rental income underpinning the investment is not currently available for public scrutiny while the project progresses.
What Council says i4C will deliver
The operating deficit is only one side of the economic equation. Council’s case for i4C rests substantially on the wider economic activity and employment it expects the investment to generate.
Its current projections include 272 permanent direct, indirect and induced jobs by 2055. It also forecasts 100 direct jobs — or 152 when indirect and induced employment is included — created or sustained during the construction phase by 2030/31.
Council projects the Gross Value Added (GVA) uplift to the economy will reach a steady state of £11.3 million per year from 2037/38, with £145 million in discounted GVA forecast over 30 years.
Asked whether i4C represents value for money for ratepayers despite its projected operating deficit, Council said the amended Outline Business Case had been appraised and approved by Belfast Region City Deal funders, which it said had also concluded that i4C represents value for money economically and financially.
The Council’s public description of the project says i4C is intended to provide incubation laboratories and workshops, Grade A and co-working office space, meeting and event facilities and innovation support for SMEs, with a particular focus on innovation and clean technology.
A 30-year investment in changing technology
The length of the financial model also raises the question of how a specialist innovation centre designed today will respond to technological and economic changes over the coming three decades.
Love Ballymena asked Council how it had assessed the risk that demand for the laboratory, office, CleanTech and innovation facilities proposed today could change significantly during the building’s lifetime.
Council said adaptability and flexibility to reconfigure space are “defining features” of the i4C design. It said open-plan office and SME workspace would be configured to meet demand and could be reconfigured throughout the building’s lifetime to respond to technological and economic changes.
That flexibility will be important if the economic and financial assumptions underpinning the project are to remain robust across a 30-year period.
£322,202 pre-operation contract
The FOI response also confirms the value of Council’s existing agreement with Oxford Innovation Ltd for the pre-operation phase of i4C.
The agreement runs for 3.5 years and has a maximum cost of £322,202. An agreement covering the operational phase has not yet been finalised.
Council said that if delays or material alterations changed the services required from the operator, an increase or decrease in payments could be considered on the basis of evidence presented. If the project were stopped and did not proceed, Oxford Innovation would be paid for work instructed up to that point.
What it means for ratepayers
The FOI response establishes two separate financial commitments for Mid and East Antrim Borough Council: a £6.787 million contribution towards constructing i4C and responsibility for meeting the centre’s operating deficit once it is running.
Love Ballymena understands that deficit is presently projected to total approximately £1.5 million cumulatively over 30 years. That figure relates to the operation of the centre and is separate from Council’s £6.787 million capital contribution. Council was given the opportunity to confirm or correct the £1.5m figure but withheld the relevant financial information.
Against those costs must be weighed Council’s projections of hundreds of jobs and a substantial long-term uplift in economic activity — the wider benefits on which its case for the public investment rests.
But ratepayers are currently unable to see some of the figures necessary to independently assess that trade-off, including the projected annual operating position, break-even point, occupancy assumptions and rental forecasts.
For ratepayers, the central question is therefore no longer whether Council expects to financially support i4C after it opens — it has confirmed that it will meet the operating deficit. The unanswered question is how much that long-term commitment will ultimately cost.
