While devil’s in the detail, funding promise is to be welcomed

A PHRASE that political pundits and business commentators are guaranteed to utter after any Budget – and rightly so – is the caution that ‘the devil’s in the detail.’

While the Chancellor’s main headline-grabbing statement to the House of Commons trumpets the major pledges and most significant statistics, it is the detailed Government documents which follow that fill in many of the blanks.

And so today we publish further news of how the Spending Review will fund specific projects in the Westcountry.

Alongside news reported yesterday that ferry links with the Isles of

Scilly will get £48million to replace ageing vessels, it has been revealed that £5million is going towards a project to open train stations in Cullompton and Wellington, while a total of £19.9million will pave the way to solving a major traffic bottleneck in the north of Plymouth.

Perhaps most significant of all is the announcement which doesn’t have a figure tied to it – the confirmation that EU funding lost by Cornwall following Brexit will be replaced.

Full documents released following Rishi Sunak’s Spending Review statement to the House on Wednesday include a line indicating that Cornwall

will get money that will “at a minimum match” the amount it would have got from the EU each year.

There have been pledges that the Brexit-backing county would not go without once the UK left the EU, from Prime Minister Boris Johnson among others, so it is heartening to see that now in writing.

Identified as one of the poorest regions in Europe, Cornwall had previously been a beneficiary of billions of pounds from the EU, funding a range of capital projects.

Cornwall Council has previously indicated that it would need around £100 million a year to replace the money which would have been provided from Europe.

Local MPs have celebrated the announcement, with North Cornwall MP Scott Mann saying he was “very pleased that our manifesto commitment to the people of Cornwall, to ensure that EU administered funds are matched post-Brexit, has been repeated in the Spending Review”. And St Austell and Newquay MP Steve Double also welcomed the news, underscoring that “Cornwall’s share of the UK’s £2.6 billion Shared Prosperity Fund will at least match previous EU funding arrangements if not exceed them”.

While the Government’s commitment to provide replacement funding is included in the Budget statement, there is no indication of how much it might be or when it might start.

So, once again, it seems the devil is in the detail.

However, now the pledge is nailed down in the Spending Review document, the Government has shown it is committed to funding for the Duchy.

In giving its word, the Government must now show it is good for its word by delivering on this welcome Spending Review promise. We will be watching closely for further details.