Cornwall Council says replacement EU funding is “crucial”

A report is set to go to councillors next week explaining how the council will seek a single pot of the cash to cover 2022 to 2028 to ensure that Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly is “no worse off” as a result of Brexit.

Cornwall has been identified by the EU as one of the poorest regions in Europe and so qualified for hundreds of millions of pounds of funding to help boost the economy over more than 20 years. If the UK had remained in the EU it was expected that Cornwall would continue to receive EU funding.

The Government has stated that it intends to match the level of funding Cornwall would have got if Britain had remained in the EU with the commitment set out again in the Chancellor’s recent autumn budget statement.

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And Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, said in a select committee yesterday that “neither Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or Cornwall will receive any less in the lifetime of this Parliament than they would have received from EU funding”.

The Government has said that the new Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF), due to start next year, will provide the replacement EU funds.

However the Government’s pledges have been met with scepticism among some Cornwall councillors after it was announced that the pilot SPF programme – the Community Renewal Fund – would only provide £1m to Cornwall.

The new report going to next week’s meeting of Cornwall Council’s economic growth and development overview and scrutiny committee sets out what has been identified as required by Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

It explains: “It is estimated that in order to be no worse off compared to the current ESIF programme, CIoS will need to receive £700m from the UK SPF over the coming seven years or an average of £100m a year over the period (with an additional three years to complete the spend of this investment).”

However councillors have warned this week that the Government’s budget allocation for the first year is £400m and if Cornwall is to get replacement funding then it would need a quarter of the budget for the whole country.

The report to the scrutiny committee also states that the council wants to make sure that any decisions on the funding and how projects will be delivered will be made locally.

It states there is a need for “a SPF programme for CIoS that is driven by local strategy, that fully devolves decision making to the CIoS level, is locally delivered and driven as well as being locally accountable”.

Officers state that “in order to be able to hit the ground running” from April 2022 Cornwall Council is drawing up an investment framework which will set out how the funding will be spent over the next 10 years.

The report adds: “CIoS continues to be one of the poorest regions in the UK with CIoS productivity, a key factor in determining local standards of living, significantly below the national average. It is crucial for the CIoS economy that the UK SPF replaces funds for local economy development previous received through the ESIF programme.”

The economic growth and development overview and scrutiny committee will meet on Tuesday (Nov16) to discuss the report and make recommendations on the best way forward in drawing up the investment framework plan.

In a statement the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: “We are levelling up every corner of the United Kingdom and the UK Shared Propriety Fund will at a minimum match EU money – reaching around £1.5 billion a year.

“Locally-led projects in Cornwall are receiving over £1million from the Community Renewal Fund. This is in addition to the EU structural fund programme.”

The department also stated: “UKSPF will reach around £1.5 billion a year from 2024. Local areas will continue to spend investment from EU structural funds until the end of 2023 on top of any UKSPF funding. The UK Shared Propriety Fund will at a minimum match EU money.”