Alongside the single market, the EEC/EU’s regional policy is perhaps the greatest legacy of the UK’s influence on the “European project”, following its accession 50 years ago. As noted by Lisa O’Carroll, Seán Clarke and Pamela Duncan (UK ministers pledged to match EU funds after Brexit. How’s that going?, 30 December), since then the European regional development fund (ERDF), European social fund (ESF) and other EU structural funds have played a significant and, in places, transformational role in supporting place-based development across the UK.
They also detail the delays, reduced funding, loss of institutional capacity, shorter programme lengths, challenges to devolution and other problems with the patchwork of UK funds supposed to replace the EU’s multi-annual and needs-based regional programmes. As the article also notes, it is difficult to compare like for like as regards past and current funding levels.
