Yorkshire demands answers over EU’s flood cash
Ministers under pressure as millions lost to region
MINISTERS ARE coming under growing pressure to account for millions of pounds of funding which was supposed to benefit flood-hit communities.
The Government is being asked to explain why as much as £2.5m may have been spent on administrative costs linked to a bid for European Union cash in the wake of the Boxing Day 2015 floods which hit Yorkshire.
Answers are also being demanded over why the majority of the money successfully secured from Brussels was used to pay off a long-standing debt to the EU.
Ministers have further failed to explain why the Government made a far more modest request for help following the 2015 floods compared to the appeal it made in the aftermath of those in 2007.
The Government initially appeared reluctant to submit a request to the EU solidarity fund following the December 2015 floods amid suggestion Eurosceptic ministers did not want to draw attention to benefits of EU membership ahead of last June’s referendum.
A request was eventually made but in a statement earlier this year the Government said EU funding rules, the repayment of an outstanding debt to Brussels and administrative costs had accounted for almost all the money secured from the fund.
Halifax MP Holly Lynch has now written to Northern Powerhouse Minister Andrew Percy, the Brigg and Goole MP, calling for a detailed explanation of the bid process and how the money promised by the EU was accounted for and requested him to meet MPs in flood-hit constituencies.
Her letter says: “Despite a number of specific written questions requesting further transparency on the recent application you have repeatedly failed to provide me with the information I have requested.”
The EU initially awarded the UK around £50m from the Solidarity Fund. In its statement in January, the Government said the costs of bidding to the fund, and the impact of the UK rebate on its EU budget contributions negotiated in the 1980s, lowered that figure to around £15m.
Ministers revealed £14.5m had been used to repay Brussels after money secured in the wake of the 2007 floods was judged to have been spent outside EU rules.
However, it is unclear why the Government had not already repaid that money when the issues with the 2007 spending had been known since at least 2013.
Analysis carried out for Ms Lynch suggests the Government could have earmarked up to £2.5m of the Solidarity Fund cash for administrative costs surrounding the 2016 bid.
A DCLG spokesman said: “We continue to strongly support flood-affected communities, with almost £300m already provided over the past year to help people get back on their feet.
“Under EU rules, the EU Solidarity Funding can only be used to reimburse public sector costs of responding to emergencies and the subsequent recovery, so cannot be paid directly to individual households or businesses. We continue to work closely with councils in the affected areas.”
You have repeatedly failed to provide me with the information Halifax MP Holly Lynch’s challenge to Minister Andrew percy over the floods money.
THE CONTEXT to the growing political row about Yorkshire’s missing flooding funds is critical. When Britain leaves the European Union, these disagreements will be redundant because the UK will no longer be in a position to apply for repair grants and the Government will have to foot the bill when properties are submerged in future.
Yet this does not excuse – or justify – the many mistakes made by David Cameron’s then government which are, frankly, an insult to all those whose lives, and livelihoods, were ruined by the winter floods of 20152016. Initially reluctant to apply for grants – the Prime Minister claimed the process was too timeconsuming – one third of the £50m sought was used to repay Brussels money spent in the aftermath of the 2007 floods because the precise expenditure did not tally with the EU’s rules.
Not only do current Ministers fail to explain why this money was not repaid at the time, it now emerges that as much as £2.5m of public money could have been spent on administration work allied to the most recent EU funding application. No wonder there are MPs like Halifax’s Holly Lynch, whose constituency was badly hit by the floods in the Calder Valley, who now want to see detailed accounts for every last penny.
Irrespective of Brexit, this is public money and its apparent misuse and mismanagement speaks volumes about Mr Cameron’s cavalier approach at the time when he was guilty of putting public relations ‘spin’ before practical action to help those devastated towns and villages in the Calder Valley, and elsewhere, that he promised to help as long as ago as the floods of 2012.
If there’s an object lesson in how not to respond to floods and their aftermath, this is it. As such, it can only be hoped that Theresa May’s Ministers take note that it has taken up to 15 months to reopen some businesses in Leeds, where a shortage of funds saw the city’s planned flood defences scaled back. How ironic.