Fairer funding

EU funds must be matched

ONE IMPORTANT matter that Government could address straight away concerns the Shared Prosperity Fund.

This loftily titled fund was established by the Conservatives to replace investment bodies that Britain previously had access to as a European Union member state.

These funds, such as the EU Structural and Regional Growth Fund, had made a genuine difference here in Yorkshire, from providing employment programmes for young people to meeting the costs of large-scale infrastructure upgrades.

The Conservatives pledged that leaving the EU would make no difference to this investment pot which it said would be replaced with a self-sufficient fund right here in the UK.

But as has been previously reported by this newspaper, so far the figures do not come close to achieving this. Indeed the Shared Prosperity Fund has been shown to be worth circa £637m for three years for the North, far shy of the £968m it had previously been due to receive, a real terms cut of 34 per cent.

This is not only a betrayal for those who voted for Brexit. It has the potential to repeat the mistakes of so many previous governments of varying colours in neglecting areas of the North to the point of making entire communities irrelevant. It is with this concern in mind that Yorkshire’s two sitting mayors Dan Jarvis and Tracy Brabin have raised the matter with the Treasury directly.

If the Government wants to start rebuilding trust with the electorate, it should start by establishing an equitable fund that both delivers what it promised and a fairer future for Britain.