Wales: European Structural Funds

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Con)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, on this issue. I extend a great welcome to the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford; it is good to see him in his place. I also welcome my noble friend Lady Bloomfield to the first debate on Wales to which she is responding. I know how committed she is to ensuring that Wales gets a fair deal—as is my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Wales, who understands these issues very clearly and has a personal interest, as a Member for west Wales, in ensuring that Wales gets a fair deal.

The noble Lord, Lord Wigley, recalled—quite rightly—our cross-party fight in the early years of the National Assembly to ensure that Wales got a fair deal. The noble Baroness, Lady Humphreys, will no doubt recall that, as will her colleagues, the noble Lord, Lord German, and the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson. They are not in their places at the moment but they were also key players in those early days in ensuring that we got a fair deal for Wales.

Working together then to ensure that the Objective 1 areas, as they were, got some of this spending, there were heady days when we thought that this funding would be transformational. It was transformational in the sense that it made a difference, but not as great a difference as we had hoped. All of us hoped that this would be a one-off application for European funding because this money was not a badge of honour; it was needed to bring these areas up to the level of the rest of Europe. Sadly, six or seven years later, there was a further round of funding, then another round of funding, which is now coming to a close. This is not something that we in Wales repeatedly want; we want the Welsh economy to benefit from this. I too have some of the concerns that were laid out by the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, but we need this to transform Wales. I am not sorry to leave behind some factors of the European programmes. There are factors that can be used to improve the performance of Wales, but we are probably best left without some of the stultifications and restrictions of the programme.

Let me echo some of the points that were made and set out the things I want to hear from the Minister. First, what is the timetable for when this will get moving and when we will consult on the shared prosperity fund? This is important because businesses, organisations and people in the areas of Wales that traditionally benefit from assistance will need to know when this help will be announced. Some indication of that would be welcome; I hope that we will get it today.

The Government have provided some reassuring guidelines, saying that they will respect the devolution settlement—that is welcome—and that we will not lose out after the removal of EU funding. Putting some flesh on the bones of that manifesto statement would also be welcome. We need to start on this programme. We need the consultation as soon as possible.

We also need to know what method will be used, in terms of Welsh assistance, to help with the funding. I suggest that we need something a bit more nuanced and sophisticated than the Barnett formula, which cannot really be used for these purposes. It is too much of a blunt instrument when we are looking at assistance for the most deprived areas of the United Kingdom. We are thinking in terms of the poorest parts of our union—not just of Wales, although that is the subject of this evening’s debate; indeed, this applies to Cornwall and other areas. It would be good to know the thinking on how this assistance will be assessed.

Further to that, there is broad agreement that there needs to be a partnership in carrying this forward. This cannot be decided solely from Westminster or the National Assembly in Cardiff Bay. How will that partnership work to make sure that the union is working effectively for the whole of the country? In parenthesis it is worth noting that, as time has gone on, with successive Governments that relationship is working better. I think that that is mostly down to what can loosely be called growing pains, since I do not think that it has anything to do with party politics. It is something to do with understanding how these things are best achieved. I would welcome some guidance from the Minister on how that will be achieved.

The next point I would like to make is how this could be used properly to advantage the United Kingdom and Wales and the parts that need assistance by using some flexibility that we did not have under the programme from Europe, which could be too restrictive. In particular, as someone who represented Powys, I mention that it was designated as a richer part of Wales. In some ways of course it was in relative terms, but that was not true of all of Powys. The southern parts of Powys such as Ystradgynlais and Abercraf, which many noble Lords will be familiar with, are former mining areas. They could not be designated as wealthier areas but they could not benefit from the funding for west Wales and the valleys because they were in east Wales. We can be more fleet of foot and innovative on things like that to ensure that we benefit. Looked at from that angle, I would also welcome some thoughts from the Minister on how we will carry that forward, because those boundaries could act as straitjackets. There are wealthier parts of west Wales and the valleys which were certainly wealthier than the former mining communities of south Powys, and that is something that needs to be brought into the equation. There are also poorer parts of north-east Wales, which I know the noble Lord, Lord Jones, will be familiar with. They ought to be taken into account as well.

These funds need to be used for projects to help with training for skills and entrepreneurship, to build in lasting prosperity for the areas that have been left behind for far too long. All of us who care about Wales will have a unity of purpose on how that can be achieved. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, on leaving behind the Brexit debate and looking at how we can now move forward for Wales. That has to be what the game is and it is what people are going to be interested in. It is not about how we revisit the past; it is about how we go towards the future and ensure that we build something that is genuinely in the interests of all of Wales. I look forward to hearing from the Minister on these key points.