CORNWALL Council says that its Brexit preparations have been hampered due to no details being released about Government funding which could replace EU cash.

The Government is looking to create a UK Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) which is “specifically designed to reduce inequalities between communities” and to “help deliver sustainable, inclusive growth”.

In Cornwall it has been hoped that the fund would provide money to the county to make up for European funding which would be lost following Brexit.

Cornwall currently receives a large amount of money from the EU due to it being one of the poorest regions in Europe.

However it was today revealed that no details have been released about the SPF or whether it would help to plug the gap left by Brexit.

Glenn Caplin, chief executive of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), has been leading the council’s work on preparing for Brexit.

He told the council’s economic growth and development overview and scrutiny committee today: “We were promised that formal consultation on the SPF would launched in September, then it was moved to December. We still haven’t had anything to date.”

Mr Caplin said there had been a hope that information would be provided by the end of the month but the extended problems over the Brexit agreement meant it could be delayed for another three or four months.

He added that the council had done a lot of work to prepare for the SPF and had drawn up some proposals such as asking the Government to ensure that the county has a similar level of investment that has been “enjoyed” thanks to the EU.

The council would also be looking for “a greater deal of devolution” to decide how funding is used.

Mr Caplin said the council had involved those who had been working on existing European funding and also working to learn lessons from the past 20 years in which Cornwall has had EU funds.

He said: “We feel we are in a good place to have that conversation with the Government about what happens next.”

The committee also heard that work was ongoing to ensure that the current programme of EU funding, which ends in 2020, was meeting targets before it ends.