Scotland cash grab: Boris set for Brexit showdown with Sturgeon over £2.1bn EU funds
BORIS JOHNSON is set for a showdown with the Scottish Government over access to EU funds after Brexit.
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Professor David Bell, from the University of Stirling, warned Holyrood could demand access to funds from the planned Shared Prosperity Fund, which is set to replace EU structural funding - worth about £2.1 billion per year - after Brexit. Fresh constitutional rows between Westminster and devolved administrations could be on the cards as Professor Bell warned it currently remains unclear what access devolved administrations would have over these funds.
He warned the Scottish Government, under First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, would likely demand the funds are controlled in Scotland.
Writing in the report Brexit and the Union for Centre on Constitutional Change, Professor Bell said: “The Scottish Government is likely to argue that control of the fund in Scotland should reside in Scotland.
“On the other hand, the UK Government may see the SPF as providing a mechanism for highlighting its role in supporting regional policy across the UK.”
The SPF was first mooted in 2017 and is due to be implemented when EU funding ends in 2021.
The Conservative 2019 General Election manifesto read “£500 million of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund is used to give disadvantaged people the skills they need to make a success of life”.
Professor Bell said it is likely the SPF would be a replacement for the European Social Fund, which “focuses on promoting employment, social inclusion, investing in education and skills and enhancing institutional capacity”.
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At the time he was Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, James Brokenshire suggested that the fund “will tackle inequalities between communities by raising productivity especially in those parts of our country whose economies are furthest behind” and insisted it would “respect the devolution settlements”.
But the Tory government is yet to carry out a consultation on the SPF, which has prompted the Welsh and Scottish Governments to begin their own consultations on the SPF.
Professor Bell said: “In the absence of proposals at UK level, the Scottish and Welsh governments have been consulting on the SPF, even though there is no clarity on the extent to which the devolved governments can influence its design.
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“Both Scotland and Wales have had considerable autonomy over the direction of these structural funds in previous EU spending rounds – dealing directly with the EU over how the funds were to be applied.
“For all the devolved institutions, the key element will be the extent to which they have granted autonomy over the use of the funds.
“The Scottish Government is currently consulting on the design of the SPF: it has involved a wide range of stakeholders with both geographical and thematic (skills and innovation) interests. A report from this exercise is due in March 2020.”