Thursday, April 14, 2022
Tories short-change Wales again
During the Brexit campaign the current crop of Tory Ministers were lined up with other Brexiteers to reassure us that Wales would not miss out on European funding if we left the EU. Alas, as we suspected at the time, their promises have disappeared into the usual Treausry rabbit hole, never to be seen again.
The Independent reports that a government fund designed to replace EU grants lost due to Brexit has been blasted as “catastrophic” amid claims that it will cut support for disadvantaged areas by more than 40 per cent over the coming three years.
The paper says that despite the 2019 Conservative manifesto promising to at least match the money provided to less wealthy areas through EU structural support, the £2.6bn being handed out by the Shared Prosperity Fund over three years, will not reach the £1.5bn annual total provided by Brussels until 2024-5:
Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford said that the nation stands to lose out by £1bn over three years, while having less say over how the money is spent. He said: “This is not levelling up, it’s levelling down.”
And NPP director Henri Murison said the shortfall amounted to a 43 per cent cut over three years, while authorities will lose the long-term security provided by the seven-year allocations offered by the EU.
“We were promised that no nation would be worse off post Brexit but, when you take out the smoke and mirrors, the data doesn’t lie,” he said.
“These funds helped young people find work, supported small businesses and backed vital medical research – cutting it will have catastrophic consequences for our economy.”
Sadly, nobody is surprised by this broken promise.
The Independent reports that a government fund designed to replace EU grants lost due to Brexit has been blasted as “catastrophic” amid claims that it will cut support for disadvantaged areas by more than 40 per cent over the coming three years.
The paper says that despite the 2019 Conservative manifesto promising to at least match the money provided to less wealthy areas through EU structural support, the £2.6bn being handed out by the Shared Prosperity Fund over three years, will not reach the £1.5bn annual total provided by Brussels until 2024-5:
Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford said that the nation stands to lose out by £1bn over three years, while having less say over how the money is spent. He said: “This is not levelling up, it’s levelling down.”
And NPP director Henri Murison said the shortfall amounted to a 43 per cent cut over three years, while authorities will lose the long-term security provided by the seven-year allocations offered by the EU.
“We were promised that no nation would be worse off post Brexit but, when you take out the smoke and mirrors, the data doesn’t lie,” he said.
“These funds helped young people find work, supported small businesses and backed vital medical research – cutting it will have catastrophic consequences for our economy.”
Sadly, nobody is surprised by this broken promise.
