Anger has greeted the news that despite the Government giving London and eight major UK cities the power to decide how to spend their European funding, it will be denying Cornwall these powers.

In a letter to Cornwall Council and the Local Enterprise Partnership earlier this month, Lord Ahmad, Minister for Communities and Local Government, confirmed that decisions on individual projects in all other areas, including Cornwall, would be made by Managing Authorities and not by local bodies.

Blaming the decision on European Commission regulations, Lord Ahmad said that continuing discussions on the issue ran the risk of creating an impasse with the Commission which could further delay the release of funds.

As a result the Government was intending to proceed with a model in which LEPs and partners have a key advisory role while decisions remained with the managing authorities.

Responding to the letter by Julian German, the Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture and the Economy, said he was angry and disappointed at the Government’s decision.

“Last summer the sun was shining on Cornwall and our negotiations with Government on the next European Investment Programme, worth over €600m between 2014-2020” he said.

“I was delighted with the way things were going and was reassured by statements from Ministers on both sides of the Coalition that decisions would be made by those who know best; the businesses and communities of Cornwall.”

This included comments from Greg Clark who said "It's obvious if you are based in Cornwall or the Isles of Scilly your ability to say what intervention, what investment is appropriate, is far more accurate and well-informed than if you are an official sitting miles away in London"; with Danny Alexander commenting “It would seem odd not to take seriously the request that there should be a degree of autonomy in the management of the European structural funds programme”.

Baroness Stowell also told representatives in the Lords that “We are giving Cornwall more opportunities than before to decide what type of projects to fund and in which areas…the only decisions that will be taken by civil servants will be to ensure that the applications for funding are eligible within EU rules.”

“There were indeed warm words, but as the weather has got colder, so has the promise of greater devolution and decision making” said Julian German.

“In fact, it’s now clear following Nick Clegg’s recent announcement that we will only provide ‘advice’ on what to spend the regions money on and decisions will indeed be made by civil servants in London.

"Cornwall has kept its part of the bargain as set out in the Governments Growth Deal. We ring fenced nearly £60m of capital investment to match fund the EU millions, set aside resource to set up loans to business, run the programme locally and establish a bottom up community led investment programme despite a very painful budget.

"We are one of the poorest regions in Europe and Cornwall needs brave, bespoke investment decisions to grow our economy and increase wage levels and productivity.

"Projects dreamt up in London, for big cities, just won’t work here because our challenges and opportunities are our own.

"Why should cities be given extra powers to make their own decisions whilst Cornwall, despite having larger amounts of funding to invest, has to make do with London calling the shots? “

Criticising the Government for failing to keep its part of the deal, Julian said this meant that the programme wasn’t up and running yet, well over a year after it was meant to start injecting much needed money into Cornwall’s economy.

“As a result there will be a gap between the current and the new programmes which means that support and grants to businesses, communities and individuals will stop before the next programme is up and running, putting jobs and projects in Cornwall at risk.”

Adding that this was not the case in other parts of the UK where the devolved administrations had made smart decisions, engaged with the European Commission and got on with the job in hand, Mr German cited West Wales and the Valleys where the programme was already up and running with regional decision making structures and a sense of urgency about the need to support its people and places.

“Of course the programme is up and running there“ he said. “Anything else just wouldn’t be acceptable for politicians and civil servants working at a much closer proximity to their electorates. While I wish good luck to our Welsh cousins, the delays we are facing mean that they will already be using their EU millions to attract investors to Wales and upskill their workforce whilst we are still waiting for London to fire the starting gun.

However, as we know in Cornwall, there’s always next summer and the next one will coincide with a new Government. I will certainly continue to argue the case for devolution of the European Programme with this Government and the next. “