Council left waiting over post-Brexit funding for projects
PROJECTS helping people across South Wales find work could be at risk as the UK Government has yet to confirm how it will replace European Union funding.
But councillors in Torfaen have been told there has been “positive mood music” from Westminster on replacement funding arrangements that were initially expected to be confirmed in September.
Torfaen voted by nearly 60% in 2016 to leave the EU, helping boost the majority for Brexit across Wales and the UK, but some schemes funded from Brussels are still in place in the borough and not due to expire until March or June next year.
The Labour-controlled borough council’s cabinet was told when it met yesterday that there is now concern for how those programmes will continue without a decision from the UK Government on allocations under its Shared Prosperity Fund which replaces EU support.
Along with other councils across the Cardiff Capital Region, Torfaen is supporting bids to attract and support the fintech financial technology sector, semiconductor plants and other “high end growth” projects and tourism.
It also has plans to spend £19.4m, through to 2025, on 16 projects across Torfaen ranging from skills work to 3G football pitches and supporting town centres to employing youth workers.
Those will only go ahead once funding is confirmed.
Senior council officer Rachel Jowitt told the cabinet: “We are not spending, we are waiting for the UK Government to come forward with the money before we press go. They always said it will be September, then October and it’s now November and we are still not clear when a decision will be made.”
She added councillors should remember the funding is also needed to support schemes already in place: “Not all of this is for new projects but support for existing EU schemes.”
At present Torfaen helps run projects on behalf of six councils in the Gwent and eastern Glamorgan Valleys, as well as the 10 that make up the capital region to help people find work and improve their skills.
Council officer Dave Leech said: “Most, if not all, of the employability work that we deliver in Torfaen is funded externally and largely through European funding currently.” He warned a decision is needed so the work can continue: “The challenge for us in designing up that programme, when we don’t have a decision yet, is growing.
“There are difficulties for us to maintain the good work that we’ve done with partners outside of the local authorities as we’re not yet at the point where we are able to commission them to deliver particular parts of that programme.”
Mr Leech said time was running out: “Even with a March closure date, if we don’t get a decision soon there will be a period where we may be at risk of not having an employability service to fill that gap.”
Ms Jowitt said Rhondda Cynon Taf Council, which is the lead authority on the South East Wales £278m bid to the Shared Prosperity Fund, is meeting fortnightly with the UK Government.
She said: “It is very much now a waiting game in terms of when the UK Government are going to say it.
“I think there were some positive mood music coming from the officials, it’s just a case of the minister signing on the dotted line I think was the informal feedback that we’ve been given.”
Council deputy leader Richard Clark said of the total funding available to Torfaen: “I don’t think it will cover the funds we received in the past but is supposed to cushion the blow in any event.”
Torfaen is also seeking clarity on whether £3.39m allocated from the UK Government’s adult numeracy programme, Multiply, can be used to fund other “essential skills work” locally as there is unlikely to be enough demand for numeracy help to meet the amount awarded.
The project has previously been at the centre of a row between the UK and Welsh Governments as education is devolved.
The cabinet has approved the council’s plans for the Shared Prosperity Fund and also that 4%, an estimated £587,000, is ring-fenced for managing the funds which includes paying a management fee to Rhondda Cynon Taf Council for regional work.