BBC Breakfast: Rishi Sunak says he 'can't solve every problem'

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Local figures had hoped the amount of Government investment funds heading north through its Levelling Up agenda would “at a minimum match the size of EU funds” given to Cornwall. Dan Jarvis, the mayor of South Yorkshire, said his area alone was owed £900million.

Promised in the Conservative 2017 manifesto, the Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) is a means by which the Government intends to distribute £2.6billion in localised investment by March 2025.

According to a Commons report on the fund, this would be laid out so that £400million would be disbursed this year, £700million next year and £1.5billion in 2024-25.

This is far below the estimated £2billion per year the UK expected to receive if it remained part of the EU.

In the Autumn budget, Mr Sunak gave Cornwall a commitment to “at a minimum match” the funding it had received from the EU, as the local authority said the amount available to it was nowhere near enough.

Northern politicians including Mr Jarvis had been vying for the Chancellor to make a similar promise for Yorkshire in this week’s mini-budget.

However, the distribution was confirmed unchanged by the Chancellor in yesterday’s statement.

Henri Murison, director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, told the Yorkshire Post it was a “glaring omission”.

He said: “If this Government is serious about levelling up, we need assurance that the north of England will see its funding protected, in the same way that Cornwall has by the Chancellor in previous fiscal events.”

Mr Murison added that Mr Sunak’s statement “still falls short of what is needed for Michael Gove to deliver genuine levelling up or for a green industrial revolution to achieve energy security”.

He said the lack of funds would be of “huge concern given the bulk of regional economic development cuts are likely to be in the North”.

West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin said: “It’s disappointing that there has been no announcement from the Chancellor today about how much West Yorkshire will receive from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

“This is the fund the Government created to replace the money the region previously received from the European Union.”

DON’T MISS
Doomsday plane flies over English Channel [INSIGHT]
Man hurls petrol bomb at Putin’s home– angry Russian uprising erupts [REPORT]
Putin ‘clearing his conscience’ after cancer diagnosis claims [REVEAL]

Mr Sunak’s spring statement did launch the second round of submissions for levelling up investment fund of £4.8billion.

In the previous round of £1.7billion in available funding, the Government gave £187million to projects in Yorkshire.

But while the new money was welcome, Ms Brabin said it “falls short of the investment that West Yorkshire really needs”.

She added: “It’s frustrating that the Government continues to insist on these ‘beauty contests’, where regions must compete against each other for short-term funding, before this money can be invested where it needs to be.”

Responding to Mr Murison’s remarks, a Department of Levelling Up spokesperson said: “We reject this criticism based on speculative projections of a fund whose allocations are yet to be announced.

“UK-wide funding for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund – worth over £2.6 billion – will ramp up to at least match receipts from EU structural funds, which on average reached around £1.5 billion per year.

“Alongside commitments to support regional finance funds across the UK via the British Business Bank, this exceeds the UK Government’s commitment to matching EU structural fund receipts for each nation.”

Source: Read Full Article