I
am pleased that the Chancellor has announced that the Treasury will ensure that
all structural and investment fund projects signed before the Autumn Statement
will be fully funded. Philip Hammond has also confirmed that agricultural
funding will continue until at least 2020. Horizon research funding granted
before leaving the EU will also be guaranteed by the Treasury after the UK
leaves. There will also be further announcements in the autumn statement
about how the government intends to secure some continuity and consistency of
the funding streams currently managed by the EU up until the point we actually
leave.
This
move will ensure stability and certainty in the run up to our exit from the EU.
However, I believe that we now have a wonderful opportunity to design our own
domestic policies to run regional policy, support businesses and sectors such
as agriculture and science.
In
terms of regional policy, in areas such as Cornwall, over the last couple of
years the British government has operated a highly successful economic fund
called the Local Growth Fund. This has funded the successful Devolution Deal
for Cornwall and has had nothing to do with the EU. It is nationally funded,
and is audited in a consistent and proportionate way by the National Audit Office.
Following problems relating to procurement around EU funding and grants,
Cornish businesses have increasingly questioned the risks of EU funding when
they could instead benefit from a stable, national regeneration fund
implemented property and consistently.
Research carried out in 2012 by the independent think
tank Open Europe has shown that there are huge dead weight costs to sending
money out to Brussels and then bringing it back again with lots of pointless
bureaucracy and strings attached. We now have a chance to do things
differently and more effectively so that the money we spend really delivers
jobs and growth.
For example, by expanding the existing Local Growth Fund,
which would be properly managed by national government in conjunction with the
Local Enterprise Partnership, we would be free to invest in projects that
really deliver for Cornwall.
I am currently enjoying spending Summer Recess in the
constituency. On 23rd August, I will be holding a pop-up surgery at
Asda, South Quay, Hayle, between 2pm and 4pm.
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