EU Funding (Rotherham and Barnsley)

Louise Ellman Excerpts

Monday 1st July 2013 Commons Chamber

[John Healey]

My right hon. Friend makes a full point. He is right. This decision is unfair and unjustifiable and undermines the very purpose of the European funds.

To develop my right hon. Friend’s point, let me turn from the facts to the fix. Three months ago, out of the blue, the Minister announced on 26 March:

“EU Structural Funds are important for supporting economic activity. The EU formula would have seen several areas in most need of funds lose out, so we have taken the decision to correct that.”

He also said that

“the UK government has decided to re-allocate EU Structural Funds to minimise the impact of sudden and significant cutbacks in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

This decision means that each Administration is only subject to an equal percentage cut of around 5 per cent in funding compared to 2007-13 levels.”

It seems that no one in government was there to speak up for England when these deals were done for the devolved regions. There is one pot of European funding for the period, so England must pay to protect the other UK nations. Ministers are ripping funds away from South Yorkshire and from Merseyside to top up Scotland and Northern Ireland, where GDP is higher, and Wales, where GDP is at a similar level.

Let me illustrate the point about the deep flaws and unfairnesses of this decision with the highlands and islands of Scotland. The highlands and islands is an ex-objective 1 area, like South Yorkshire. It is a current phasing status area, like South Yorkshire. It has a GDP of 84%, like South Yorkshire. It will have transition region status, like South Yorkshire, but unlike South Yorkshire its funding will not be €117 per head. It will not even be €147 per head, as in Merseyside. It will be €741 per head. Its economic status is similar but it will have over six times more funding for every man, woman and child in the highlands and islands. The Chief Secretary has clearly been doing his job for his area. What has the Deputy Prime Minister been doing for our area? This is Forgemasters mark II. There has been no evidence of concern, and certainly no evidence of influence from the Deputy Prime Minister when this critical decision for Sheffield city region was taken. He is standing up while the Government blatantly make bad and damaging decisions for our area in South Yorkshire.

[Mrs Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

[John Healey]

If my hon. Friend will forgive me, I have been generous in giving way and I am running out of time.

I turn to the Minister’s position on this matter. He kindly wrote to me a couple of weeks ago to try to justify the anticipated announcement of the deep cuts in South Yorkshire. He said in the letter on 19 June:

“In the case of Merseyside and South Yorkshire, current EU Structural Funds are gradually reducing from 2007 to 2011, due to their relative rise in prosperity…Their funding has been a taper…For 2014-20 it is therefore not envisaged that either of these regions will enjoy special status…especially as these two regions are no longer amongst the poorest of the English Transition regions.”

I want to say three things to the Minister. First, the relative rise in prosperity in South Yorkshire anticipated at the start of the period has not happened as we were hit harder than many other areas by the global financial crisis and the austerity-driven downturn after 2010. Secondly, the profile of the spend each year during the seven-year period has been broadly equal and not sharply declining towards the end of the period. Thirdly, unfortunately, it remains the case that only three regions in the UK are poorer than Merseyside and only four regions, including Merseyside, are poorer than South Yorkshire. I hate making the case in those terms because I want to talk about the new businesses, the jobs programmes, the skills base, the investment plans and the economic potential of our area, but that is the argument that the Government are using, so that is the argument that I must counter.

Finally, let me turn to the written ministerial statement confirming these allocations for England issued on 27 June. At the end of the statement, it says:

“All allocations are subject to final agreement on the EU regulations and the EU 2014-2020 Budget in the European Parliament. The European Commission will also need to agree the UK Government’s specific proposals.”—[Official Report, 27 June 2013; Vol. 565, c. 9WS.]

I have to say to the Minister that seeing UK regions with a level of prosperity so much higher than ours getting so much more than ours seems to me to ride roughshod over the purpose of the EU budget agreement. That is why I and my hon. Friend the Member for St Helens North have written to Commissioner Hahn asking him to take a hard look at the UK’s decisions and whether they breach the intention of the EU’s allocation policy and formula, and our MEPs, Linda McAvan and Arlene McCarthy, have done the same. There must be a strong case for a judicial review, which I know is also being seriously considered. Although I say to the Minister that we have no wish to hold up the allocation of these funds, as all our areas can put these funds to very good use, we have to fight for funding that treats all our areas equally and that directs the most support to those areas with the greatest need and the greatest potential.

The Minister told me in his letter and in our meeting:

“Unfortunately, very little flexibility remains here.”

Well, he has been painted into a corner by his colleagues in Government making special provision for the devolved regions and making that an early announcement. Tonight we want him to make good this wrong and to balance this deeply flawed decision by reviewing the allocations to South Yorkshire and Merseyside and making a commitment to use other funding routes to rectify the shortfall. We are asking not for special treatment, but just for the same treatment as Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, and certainly not to be singled out for such special and swingeing cutbacks.

This is not an argument about a one-off annual grant. The Minister’s decisions now will stand for the whole of the next Parliament and Government, and beyond. That is why what he has to say to the House and the action he takes following this debate are so important.