My Lords, it is a great pleasure to move this amendment and I am glad that we have got to it at last. It is tabled in the names of my noble friends Lady Royall of Blaisdon and Lord Judd as well as mine. I am pleased to see my noble friend Lord Judd in his place. My noble friend Lady Royall has asked me to pass on her sincere apologies for not being able to be present for the debate, but in no way is that a reflection on her enthusiasm for the amendment—quite the reverse.
The amendment proposes a new clause be inserted into the Bill to incorporate Article 174, Title XVIII of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union into domestic law. This would require the Secretary of State to lay before Parliament, before the end of December 2018, a strategy for the future provision of funding and other support to achieve economic and social cohesion across the regions and nations of the United Kingdom. All noble Lords will know that the European Union cohesion policy has been very effective in ensuring that the less developed and transition regions have access to operational programmes and funding to support economic growth across the whole of the European Union, and thus have been able to develop.
Once the United Kingdom leaves the European Union—in my context, I should say if the UK leaves the EU—this proposed new clause will be necessary. However—I will never give up—I sincerely hope that
the clause, and indeed the Bill, will be unnecessary, but since we are moving in a particular direction we need to make sure that safeguards are in place. This amendment would ensure that the principles of social and economic cohesion which the UK regions would have qualified for under the EU cohesion programme, along with the funding after the date of exit, are continued and that the Government will go on with the aim of strengthening and rebalancing the entirety of the union, including the regions of England as well as the devolved nations.
I hope that when the Minister comes to reply—she is my good friend and she had a good birthday celebration yesterday—which I am pleased to say makes it an even more interesting and enjoyable debate, she will be able to give us a clear assurance on this. Some vague promises have been made. It has been suggested, or perhaps hinted, that the block grant might be adjusted to take account of the money that will be lost through the non-availability of these cohesion funds. As far as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are concerned in terms of the block grant, it is never guaranteed to include everything that it is supposed to include. We would never be able to check that the grant was going to be that much greater than it would have been otherwise, if the cohesion fund had not been included. Anyway, what about the parts of England that have been benefiting from the fund? They do not get a block grant, so will the adjustments to local authorities be changed? Local authority incomes are being cut and they are not getting any extra money, so it will be even more difficult for them. This amendment would guarantee that the funds would be available.
Let us take a closer look at the regions that have qualified for cohesion funding. Those which receive assistance are described as either less developed or transition regions. Of course, once a less developed region gets assistance and develops, it then becomes a transition region. It will still qualify for cohesion funding, but to a lesser extent. A region is less developed if its per capita GDP is less than 75% of the European Union average. In the 2014 to 2020 period, the less developed regions of the United Kingdom have been allocated £2.6 billion. Those are Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, and West Wales and the Valleys. A region is in transition if the per capita GDP is more than 75% but less than 90% of the European Union average. In the 2014 to 2020 period, £2.5 billion was allocated to those regions, which are Northern Ireland, the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, Cumbria, Tees Valley and Durham, Lancashire, South Yorkshire, East Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Devon. It is also worth noting that the majority of these qualifying regions could be described as rural, coastal or peripheral parts of the United Kingdom and are therefore in great need of this kind of assistance.
I want to give some examples of the kind of money that will be lost and the kind of projects that will be affected. I shall first mention Cornwall and then Scotland. I refer to Cornwall because I was inspired to table this amendment by Clare Moody, the Member of the European Parliament who represents Cornwall and other parts of the south-west of England. I am grateful to her for her assistance in this. My first example is something called Launchpad, which received almost £10 million worth of European Regional Development
Fund money. Launchpad is a graduate start-up programme run by Falmouth University that aims to give participants the skills to develop a project from inception to a sustainable, high-growth potential company in just two years. It will support graduates to develop new products and processes in response to market demand, focusing on the digital games and interactive technology sectors. These sectors are rapidly developing. That money would continue to be available right up until the end of the period if we were still in the European Union, but if we go out there is no guarantee that it will continue and Falmouth University will not be able to continue the programme. We need some kind of guarantee from the Minister and the Government that such projects will continue to be supported.
Another example from Cornwall is CETO Wave Energy, which gets £9.5 million from the ERDF. This project aims to build a wave energy converter device at the Wave Hub off the north coast of Cornwall, near Hayle. By developing a 1 megawatt device connected to the national grid, the project will advance wave energy technology and demonstrate its commercial viability. That is good not just for that area but for the country as a whole, and for trying to mitigate the effects of climate change as we develop wave technology. It is a very important area that is being funded.
Those are two projects from the ERDF. I will take one from Cornwall funded by the ESF, the stability fund. Some £1.3 million has been allocated to Skills for Young People. This project will provide skills development for young people not in education, employment or training—sometimes described as NEETs—or who are at risk of becoming part of that group. Managed by Careers South West and delivered by a range of partners, it brings young people closer to work and further learning. Again, it is a very important project in an underdeveloped area, Cornwall.
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I will mention Scotland for reasons that I am sure Members will understand, particularly the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope, and my other colleagues from Scotland. I am grateful to the Law Society of Scotland for the information concerning Scotland. My good friend Michael Clancy helped me with this. He has been helping a lot of Members of this House with amendments. He managed to get some information from Tamasin Dorosti in the Law Societies’ Brussels office—the Law Society of Scotland, along with the Law Society in Wales and the Law Society of Northern Ireland, have a combined office in Brussels, which is very useful indeed. She gave me information about money from the European Regional Development Fund going to Scotland, which again will be jeopardised if we come out of the European Union if the amendment is not passed or there is no clear guarantee that the money will be replicated.
Out of the European Regional Development Fund, which is €196 billion, in total Scotland secured a total investment of €941 million, split across the ERDF and the European Social Fund. The ERDF allocation was €476 million and the ESF allocation €464 million. That provides the following strategic interventions: business competitiveness; developing Scotland’s workforce; green infrastructure; innovation; the low-carbon infrastructure transition fund; low-carbon travel and
transport; a resource-efficient circular economy; smart cities; social inclusion and poverty reduction; and youth employment initiatives. They are all positive go-ahead areas that need continuing support. They will again be in jeopardy if the Government do not come up with the equivalent resources directly to these kinds of projects. That means contacting them, not just at arm’s length, and indicating that they will get the same kind of support.
Then there is the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, which in total is €96 billion. Some €1.68 billion has been allocated to Scotland for the seven-year period from 2014 to 2020. A central priority of the Scottish RDP, which is funded through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, is restoring, preserving and enhancing ecosystems relating to agriculture and forestry. Approximately 80% of the total funding is allocated to this priority, targeting more than 6 million hectares of agricultural and forestry areas through environmental land management targeted to specific biodiversity, water management and soil erosion objectives. Anyone who understands the countryside in Scotland in particular will know how important that is. Specifically, for each of the three focus areas, around 20% of agricultural land and almost 40% of forest areas will be put under contract, contributing to increased biodiversity and better water management, and preventing soil erosion. In addition, restructuring and modernisation plans, covering roughly 16% of Scottish agricultural holdings, will be available with a view to boosting the productivity of farming and forestry, thereby creating economic growth and more jobs. Support for this LEADER campaign is expected to create more than 550 jobs in the rural areas of Scotland—a large number in rural areas—and almost 13,000 training places will be created to foster innovation, knowledge transfer, co-operation, more sustainable farming practices and stronger rural businesses.
Finally on Scotland, there is the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, of which Scotland has been allocated €107.7 million. These projects include 180 fishing vessel modernisation projects and other schemes to help with marketing, research and to help to develop ports. The EMFF helps fishermen in the transition to sustainable fishing, which again is a very important transition. It supports coastal communities to diversify their economies when fishing is no longer able to sustain them. It finances projects that create new jobs and improve quality of life across European coasts, and it makes it easier for applicants to access financing. If Members would like more information about the EMFF, they can find it on the European Union website. It would then become clear to Members, even to members of the Government, that the European Regional Development Fund, the stabilisation fund, the fund for rural development and the maritime and fisheries fund are vital in providing assistance. The noble Lord, Lord Callanan, is shaking his head.