People in Wales would much rather see the nation’s post-Brexit regional aid policy managed by the Welsh Government than by Westminster, according to an exclusive poll for WalesOnline.
The result comes at a crucial time, with the UK Government due to announce on Wednesday details of how its Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) will operate. SPF is the main programme in the government’s “levelling up” agenda.
The Welsh and Scottish governments are angry that smaller precursor programmes run by Westminster have seen them sidelined, with the distribution of funds managed by the UK’s Department of Levelling Up. This contrasts with the situation that existed before Brexit, when the devolved administrations were responsible for allocating EU aid money. See our report here on the massive impact Covid, Brexit and climate change will have on parts of Wales.
The Welsh Government will feel vindicated by the result of today’s poll of 1,000 people carried out by Beaufort Research, which shows that almost half of those interviewed overall (47%) would like to see responsibility for the post-Brexit regional aid programme resting with the Welsh Government. Nearly three in ten (29%) opted for both governments to be in charge jointly, while fewer than two in ten (17%) felt the UK Government should hold the power. Some 6% were unable to answer.
People aged between 35 and 54 and those aged 55+ were more likely than 16-34 year-olds to say it should be the Welsh Government (at 53% and 49% respectively, compared to 39% of younger people. Younger people were more likely to opt for both governments jointly than middle aged and older people and were also more likely to answer “don’t know”.
People in the higher socioeconomic grades (ABC1s) were more likely to want to see the Welsh Government allocating and distributing regional aid funds than those in the lower socioeconomic groups (C2DEs) at 50% against 45%. Fluent Welsh speakers were most likely overall to choose the Welsh Government (at 55% against 47% overall) and least likely to choose the UK Government (at 12%, against 17% overall).
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “It’s clear people in Wales still want the Welsh Government to have a substantial role in leading and managing Shared Prosperity Funds, reflecting the position at the 2021 election. We are in active discussion with the UK Government to reach agreement on the Welsh Government having a co-decision making role in the SPF, which we have been seeking since the SPF was first announced nearly four years ago. However, we remain concerned Wales still stands to lose close to £1bn in funding. We continue to press UK Ministers on this.”
A UK Government spokeswoman said: “Local authorities and community groups are best-placed to understand what funding is needed for their local area – not politicians in Brussels, London or Cardiff Bay. The model we have set up for post-Brexit regional funding has been welcomed by local authorities across Wales, and represents a further devolution of decision-making and accountability to those who know their communities best.
“In partnership with councils and communities, the UK Government has already invested in 175 projects right across Wales with £165m additional direct funding to support community renewal, skills and jobs and the next round of projects will be announced later this year. On top of this we will match the previous levels of EU funding in Wales and across the UK in 2022.”
Plaid Cymru’s Treasury spokesperson, Ben Lake MP said: “The UK Government badly misjudged the mood on devolution after Brexit, wrongly believing that the people of Wales wanted more Westminster interference in their lives. This poll puts that misconception to bed, clearly showing that people in Wales put more trust in their own government to address inequalities over an out-of-touch UK government.
“Plaid Cymru introduced a Bill last month that would require the Secretary of State to report to Parliament on the devolution of the management and administration of the Shared Prosperity Fund to the Welsh Government. Through my Bill, we could replace the Conservatives’ pork barrel approach with a transformational programme of investment in our social infrastructure – housing, care homes, surgeries, schools, libraries and parks.
“Westminster has neither public support nor the necessary understanding of Welsh communities to oversee regional aid. There is no justification to withhold these powers from Wales any longer.”
A Welsh Conservative spokesman said: “The UK Government has delivered Brexit when the Welsh Government wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds trying to stop it. The Welsh Government doesn’t hold the monopoly of wisdom on what’s best for Welsh communities any more than Westminster does, and that is why over the last two years the Conservative Government has directly invested hundreds of millions of pounds into communities across Wales, saving vital local community assets and supporting local areas to bounce back from the pandemic.
“What people care about is that the maximum amount of money reaches our local communities and their priorities, and not wasted on needless bureaucracy and Labour vanity projects that only benefit south Wales. The Welsh Conservatives achieved a guarantee from the UK Government in 2019, that Wales would not lose any funding as a result of leaving the EU – and it is clear the Conservative Government is going to go further in levelling up our entire country than the EU ever did.”
Fieldwork for the survey took place between February 28 and March 20 2022. A total of 1,000 interviews were completed and analysed to ensure that the sample was representative of Welsh adults as a whole.
