GOVERNMENT MUST PROVIDE CLARITY ON THE SHARED PROSPERITY FUND

I recently contributed to a debate on the Shared Prosperity Fund, the UK Government’s planned replacement for the EU Structural Funds, which provide vital funding in North Ayrshire and Arran, supporting employability initiatives as well as measures to tackle poverty and the promotion of social inclusion. The UK Government has, three years on from Brexit, not announced how much cash the replacement fund will have to distribute, how the funding will be administered, which organisations will be eligible for funding and which programmes that currently benefit will be left unfunded. It is alarming that we are still in the dark over how this important funding will be replaced, 3 years after the Brexit vote. I urged the minister to provide some much needed clarity on these points, and assurances that the devolved administrations will be respected and consulted on how this funding will be distributed. Sadly, the Minister was not willing to give assurances that this funding would be retained at current levels.

Click below to watch my contribution.