Council’s £12m EU funding ‘True ramifications’hitting home

More than £12 million of European Union funding supports projects run by South Lanarkshire Council – with huge uncertainty over what the future holds after Brexit.

The figure emerged as part of a Freedom of Information (FoI) request submitted by the Reformer and our sister paper the East Kilbride News.

South Lanarkshire was successful in securing £12.781m of funding for projects between 2016 and 2020 – with EU funding representing 40 per cent of the total costs.

The three main projects included in overall funding are, according to a council report, the Employability Initiative, Youth Employment Initiative and Leader.

The UK Government has said it will guarantee funding for programmes which receive EU funding until the end of 2020. But the situation is not clear beyond then with the FoI stating that “confirmed allocations have not yet been made” for EU funding for the 2019 to 2023 period.

When the UK leaves the EU, these projects will not receive funding from Brussels. Decisions will then be up to the UK Government of the day.

The FoI response said the council would not release information on any impact register outlining the risks and benefits associated with Brexit as it is still in draft form and subject to revisal, with no information held on any commissioned studies relating to the impact on the council of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

Ged Killen, Rutheglen MP, told the Reformer that the information highlights the local impact of Brexit.

He said: “Programmes such as these are a perfect example of the direct benefit our local communities get out of being in the European Union.

“I understand funding has been guaranteed until the end of 2020, but beyond that there is massive uncertainty about what the successor to the EU funding scheme will be.

“Local councils have already had their budgets squeezed by almost a