EU funding ‘failed to benefit Cornwall’

YEARS of funding that pumped millions of pounds of EU cash into Cornwall failed to lift the county out of the economic doldrums, a leading businessman has claimed.

As Brexit opens up a new funding chapter for Cornwall – with Westminster rather than Brussels being asked to provide the support – tech company co-founder and Cornwall Chamber president Toby Parkins has questioned how the EU cash that poured into the Duchy was used.

He claimed the public sector sucked in much of the funding.

ALEADING businessman has claimed that European funding “failed to achieve significant economic development” in Cornwall.

Cornwall has received millions of pounds from the European Union over the last 20 years after being identified as one of the poorest regions in Europe.

But Toby Parkins, who is co-founder of tech company Headforwards and also president of the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce, has questioned how that money was used.

He also claimed that public sector organisations had devised policies which would ensure that European cash would go to them.

The businessman made the comments in an online forum which was looking at how Cornwall’s economy may cope after the Coronavirus crisis and how the Local Industrial Strategy which is awaiting government approval might help.

He said: “Historically we have failed to achieve significant economic development as a result of European funding.

“That is not to say that everything has been bad, but overall if you look at the main measure we are still bubbling under 75% [GDP of the European average].

“We need to ask ourselves some uncomfortable questions about how that has happened.”

Mr Parkins suggested that one explanation was how the European funding was distributed in Cornwall and where it went.

And he claimed that state funded organisations had pushed forward an agenda which would ensure that they would be able to get EU cash.

“There are a number of institutions that rely on public funding that drive policy that will ensure that they continue to get funding,” he explained.

“If you look at all the EU programmes and look at where it is spent and the projects it is all larger programmes and organisations.”

Mr Parkins said that this meant that private sector firms and organisations were often unable to access the funding unless they had experience of public funding.

And he suggested that there had been a lack of analysis of whether individual programmes had achieved what they set out to do.

He said that the impact of schemes was “rarely considered” and said that there was little attempt to explain how EU funding would provide a larger financial benefit Now Britain has left the EU Cornwall and other deprived areas of Britain are looking to Westminster for financial support.