The government’s plan for implementing post-Brexit regional aid funding does not leave enough time for local authorities to prepare and puts at risk billions in investment, according to the Local Government Association (LGA).
The government has promised to launch a consultation by the end of this year on its proposed replacement for structural funding, which comes to an end in 2020.
But the LGA says that this will leave local areas with too little time to design and deliver schemes under the new arrangements.
Kevin Bentley, chairman of the LGA’s taskforce for leaving the EU, said: “Brexit cannot leave local areas facing huge financial uncertainty as a result of lost regional aid funding.
“This funding has been used by local areas to create jobs, support small and medium enterprises, deliver skills training, invest in critical transport and digital infrastructure, and boost inclusive growth across the country.”
Bentley said the LGA wants to work urgently with the government on successor arrangements to structural funds.
He added councils need to know how they will be able to bid for, and receive, their allocations by the time the UK leaves the European Union.
“Without action there is a risk that billions of pounds of investment into our communities will be lost and local areas and economies will be denied desperately needed funding,” he said.
The LGA published an alternative timetable for action, which would see consultation completed by the autumn, with allocations from the new fund for 2021–28 announced by spring 2019.
In a speech to the Local Government Association conference this week, communities secretary James Brokenshire said that he would create a new delivery board, with local government, to support the implementation of changes linked to Brexit.
“Regardless of our political differences, we all have a duty to ensure that every community can benefit as we build a modern, outward-looking Britain after Brexit,” he said.
In a separate report published this week, the LGA’s Post-Brexit England Commission said that a “perfect storm” is threatening the prosperity of rural areas.
The commission’s interim report said central government should get on with delivering Brexit and hand councils responsibility for building affordable homes, skills and employment schemes, digital infrastructure and plugging the social care funding gap.
Mark Hawthorne, chairman of the LGA’s people and places board, said: “If Britain is to make the most of a successful future outside of the European Union, it is essential that our future success is not confined to our cities.
“Unless the government can give non-metropolitan England the powers and resources it needs, it will be left behind.”
