Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what recent discussions they have
had with the First Minister of Wales about the shared prosperity
fund.
The Minister of State, Home Office and Department for Levelling
Up, Housing & Communities () (Con)
In the UK shared prosperity fund pre-launch guidance, the UK
Government stated the ambition to work with the Welsh Government
and we remain committed to this. The Secretary of State and First
Minister have discussed the UK shared prosperity fund alongside
our wider levelling-up agenda. We remain open to further
engagement at ministerial and official level.
(Lab)
There is a broken promise to replace EU funds for Wales and it is
set to cost the country £1 billion over the next three years, so
I ask the UK Government to co-operate fully with the Welsh
Government to redress this huge deficit and treat this matter
with urgency and the respect that it deserves from one Government
to another. Could the Minister bring regular updates to the House
on the content and progress of such discussions of the shared
prosperity fund and, indeed, any related matters of funding for
Wales?
(Con)
My Lords, there is a very clear commitment to match EU funds in
Wales through Wales’s share of the £2.6 billion UK shared
prosperity fund. We recognise the importance of very close
collaboration with all our devolved Administrations, including
Wales, and every aspect of my department is working closely with
its Welsh counterpart. I even had a letter two days ago from the
Climate Change Minister about building safety. We can learn a lot
from each other and can continue, at an official and a
ministerial level, to work on the guidance on the UK shared
prosperity fund.
(UUP)
My Lords, programmes backed by the European Social Fund have
supported more than 77,000 people in Northern Ireland to overcome
obstacles to social inclusion and unemployment. With ESF funding
due to end this month and with no funds from the Executive at
Stormont, what additional support do the UK Government intend to
offer through the shared prosperity fund to ensure that the
wonderful work done by local specialists and voluntary
organisations with those programmes can continue in Northern
Ireland?
(Con)
Timing is everything and of course we are just at the point of
announcing how we intend to approach the disbursement of funds
through the UK shared prosperity fund. At that point, we will be
able to give a very full answer to the noble Lord’s question.
(PC)
My Lords, on that very point, I welcome the principle of
distributing funds to counties and regions rather than by some
spurious competitive bids, but what will be the parameters for
deciding on allocations? Will there be a strategic approach? What
will be the role and responsibility of the counties and what will
be the mechanism for delivering regional co-operation? What will
be the function of the Welsh Government in making this happen?
(Con)
My Lords, yet again, it is about looking at the detail that will
be contained in the pre-launch guidance publication—which is, as
I say, very imminent.
(Con)
My Lords, of course the UK shared prosperity fund is very
important, but can my noble friend tell the House what else Her
Majesty’s Government are doing to level up Wales?
(Con)
My Lords, I am always reminded that on all sides of the House we
have tremendous support for Wales, including on the Front Bench.
My noble friend is right to probe, and in response I can say
there is more than £18 billion through the Welsh block grant,
£167 million in local growth funding, a share of the £2.6 billion
shared prosperity fund, £900 million for Welsh farmers and a £130
million British business bank fund to support Wales’s small
businesses. That is considerable investment to ensure that Wales
prospers.
(LD)
My Lords, we have gone from “not a penny less” to analysis
showing that, by 2024, the Welsh budget will be £1 billion worse
off, as the noble Baroness has already said. With very little
clarity at the moment on plans going forward, is it not now time
to respect devolution, restore the missing £1 billion to the
Welsh budget and put Welsh decision-making on building stronger
local economies back where it belongs, in the hands of Welsh
Ministers?
(Con)
We are getting some mixed messages from the House. On one hand we
have that desire to see that we empower regions and functional
economic areas through councils, but we do recognise that it is
important to have proper engagement and collaboration with the
Welsh Government. Indeed, at official level and also through the
Welsh Local Government Association, that continues to happen, as
it does at the level of the Secretary of State, who had a
meeting, in the levelling up and housing committee, with the
Welsh Local Government Association and local authority leaders. I
believe that Minister O’Brien also met ministerial counterparts
yesterday. So, yes, we must continue to build on collaboration,
and I just caution against the idea that we should model into the
future and say that there is a gap. We want to make sure that we
repair the public finances, post pandemic, so that every part of
this great country gets the investment it needs to prosper.
(Lab)
My Lords, although I suppose I could thank the Minister for his
warm words about Wales, the truth is, as my noble friend Lady
Wilcox pointed out, that Wales is being consistently
short-changed post Brexit, and we are seeing power grabs as well
from Westminster, such as in the Subsidy Control Bill, which has
been described as having a “pernicious effect on devolution” by
the Senedd committee responsible. Surely the Government should
start talking directly and understanding that devolution is going
to work only if Whitehall respects it, both in funding terms and
in terms of powers—and it is not doing so at the moment.
(Con)
That is essentially more of a comment than a question, but there
is a real respect for both the Welsh Government and local leaders
in Wales. We continue to work very productively, certainly at
ministerial level and also through officials. We want to see a
strong Wales—I would like to see a stronger Welsh rugby team,
frankly, after the result against Italy.
(LD)
My Lords, bids for the shared prosperity fund were supposed to be
in by July last year and the money was supposed to have been
spent by the end of next week, 31 March. How is that progressing?
Also, projects were being developed in the hope that funding
would be at a similar level to the European fund, including the
port of Holyhead. How is the European funding of projects in
Holyhead progressing?
(Con)
My Lords, I will write to the noble Lord on that specific point
with a very fulsome answer and I will lay a copy in the Library.
I think it is fair to say that this is a problem not just for
Wales: we need to ensure that we do not have these cliff edges—I
used to call it “March madness”—where we rush to spend money.
Certainly, we should be looking at ways of accruing expenditure
to spend it a sensible way to get real value for money for the
taxpayer. So, it is a point well made.
(Lab)
My Lords, is the Minister aware that our local authorities
complain not only about the current confusion but about the
limited timespan of the new scheme, which makes long-term
planning more difficult?
(Con)
We recognise that, frankly, we have too many funds and that we
have to find ways of bringing those funds together to ensure that
processes are around delivery and not around grant farming. That
is a direction of travel that my department recognises as
something we need to improve on in the forthcoming years—but it
takes time.
(Lab)
My Lords, I am glad to see that one of the objectives of the
shared prosperity fund is to “boost pay”. The Minister will know
that the workers’ share of GDP in the UK, in the form of wages
and salaries, just before the pandemic was 48.7%, compared with
65.1% in 1976. Can he provide four or five examples of how the
Government will increase the workers’ share of GDP in order to
meet the shared fund objectives?
(Con)
My Lords, I like to be tested at the Dispatch Box, but I have
been given a blizzard of statistics and an impossible request to
give five examples. No, I cannot do that, but I am not sure it is
particularly helpful. We recognise the need to see real economic
development and a strong Welsh economy because, ultimately, that
is what is going to make a difference to people’s lives.
(Con)
How will rural areas such as North Yorkshire, the new unitary
authority, benefit from the shared prosperity fund?
(Con)
I am sorry, I did not hear the question. But Yorkshire is a very
important place as well.
(LD)
My Lords, Cornwall was in receipt of considerable EU funding. Can
the noble Lord confirm that Cornwall is still in the mix for
shared prosperity funding?
(Con)
Cornwall is incredibly important—with its own language, even—and
we want to make sure that we level up within regions and all
parts of the country. We recognise the need to deal with some of
the real rural deprivation that exists in Cornwall.
(Lab)
Can the Minister confirm that Staffordshire and Shropshire are
also important?
(Con)
Staffordshire and Shropshire are in the plan as well—I can
confirm that to noble Lords.
