EU Funding (Rotherham and Barnsley)

Paul Blomfield Excerpts

Monday 1st July 2013 Commons Chamber

[John Healey]

It is no good the Minister shaking his head, because we face a cliff-edge cut in the funding for the new European funding period as compared with the previous ones. The European funds are designed to give a boost to the economy of flagging regions. I have to say that it is an outrage that areas of the UK with more wealth, more jobs, more business and more prosperity are also getting more European funding in the period ahead.

Let me tell the Minister that it aggravates our anger to learn that the major factor in this unfair distribution and the cuts that our areas will uniquely take is the Government’s plan to direct top-up funds from South Yorkshire and Merseyside in order to support Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland—to limit their losses to 5% when we face cuts of more than 50% in our funding for the next period. There is no logic and no equity in that and we have seen no effort to be even-handed.

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

I am sure that my right hon. Friend will share my incredulity at seeing the Minister sitting there shaking his head. Will he note, as I do, that the chairman of the Sheffield City Region local enterprise partnership—the Government look to local enterprise partnerships to provide business leadership—would disagree vehemently with the Minister, because he has pointed out that our arguments have been ignored and that our EU funding allocation has been cut by about a half?

[John Healey]

My hon. Friend is right to voice the view from the chairman of a local enterprise partnership, which has been echoed by the Liverpool City Region’s LEP. Both are concerned that the potential for boosting our economies will be lost in Barnsley and Rotherham, as in our other two city regions.