EU Grants and Loans

(asked on 16th July 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of funds allocated in each region under the European Regional Development Fund have been returned as a result of slippage and underperformance in each region; and on what dates each such withdrawal took place.


Answered by
 Portrait
Kris Hopkins
This question was answered on 22nd October 2014

In 2013, £4.1 million was withdrawn from European Regional Development Fund allocations, which represents a tiny proportion of the total £2.74 billion budget. All spending of taxpayers’ money must ensure value for money and money should not be spent on poor quality projects. In addition, all spending must comply with complex EU rules, or else risk “financial corrections” down the line.

The European Regional Development Fund is a circular programme. UK taxpayers’ money is given to the European Union budget. Under the Fund, a local project receives a contract, spends money and then claims from DCLG. DCLG then claims funds back from the European Commission. The whole process goes through a complex auditing process involving DCLG auditors and then European Union auditors. After a period of time, the majority of unspent funding is returned to the UK Government by the European Commission. We continue to have concerns over the bureaucratic and time consuming nature of the related processes involved in the programme.

Reticulating Splines