The UK Shared Prosperity Fund launches today - here’s a quick 🧵 on the main issues.
1) the Conservative Party manifesto committed to setting up the UKSPF to replace EU funds lost to Brexit and that it would as “a minimum match the size of those funds in each nation”.
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2) EU funds would have invested £10.85bn in the UK’s regions between 2021 and 2027, but the Government’s replacement fund has a much lower value.
2021 - £0
2022 - £400m
2023 - £700m
2024 - £1.5bn
2025 - unknown
2026 - unknown
2027 - unknown
A gap of c.£8.25 billion. 🤦♂️
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3) Focus at the launch will be on English region allocations.
For context EU Fund allocations in 2014-2020 were:
• Tees Valley £197m
• West Midlands £909m
NI, Scotland, Wales & Cornwall been promised the same as EU funds so less for other areas.
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4) Having worked with EU Funds in both Brussels & UK, I know a domestic fund can be designed to be more nimble and effective.
At the moment the UKSPF is not better than EU funding, nor is it a decent replacement.
It’s value needs to be increased and capital funding added.
/End
The press release for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund is now online.
Unsurprisingly it refers to the UKSPF being less bureaucratic than EU funds.
Surprisingly for a press release about communities taking control, the picture is of @LUHC’s London office.
gov.uk/government/new…
A bit of context for those reviewing the UK Shared Prosperity Fund allocations.
• The West Midlands received £909m from EU funds between 2014-2020.
• The West Midlands will receive £105m between 2021-2025 under UKSPF.
In terms of action… as voters we should demand the manifesto commitment is honoured.
That means the Government ensuring the remaining £8.25bn will be made available through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund by 2027.
Only by holding our leaders to account will #UKSPF be fixed…
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