Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chris Green and Kwasi Kwarteng

Thursday 28th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

15. What discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the effect of the UK leaving the EU on funding for the regeneration of towns.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (Kwasi Kwarteng)]

Of course, my hon. Friend will be well aware that leaving the EU creates fresh opportunities to allocate growth funding according to our own UK priorities, including the regeneration of towns. The Government are committed to creating the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to tackle these inequalities across our communities. Leaving the EU with a deal will mean, of course, that we remain in the existing programmes until they close. We have also protected this funding in the case of a no-deal scenario.

[Chris Green]

Will my hon. Friend confirm how we will make the Shared Prosperity Fund better than the EU programmes that it will replace?

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

My hon. Friend, and I think everyone across this House who has an elementary grasp of arithmetic, will know that for every €20 that we put into the EU pot we got €10 back, so we were a net contributor. We were the second biggest net contributor, and the logic of that is that we can more than compensate for the loss of EU funding across our communities. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund will go some way to meeting those concerns.