It’s no exaggeration to say that EU funding has been critical to the rebirth and regeneration of Birmingham in the past 30 years. Today’s vibrant, dynamic, confident city has only been made possible with European money.
So with the aftershocks of the 23 June vote to leave the EU still clearly being felt across the world, our city needs reassurances that previous EU spending commitments will be honoured. The Local Government Association, which represents councils in England, is seeking urgent guarantees that local areas will receive every penny of EU funding they are expecting by the end of the decade.
Don’t get me wrong. We’re still open for business and we will build on deals that have brought the likes of HSBC and Deutsche Bank to our city. But our task will be made much easier if the government can put an end to uncertainty over outstanding EU funding.
Since the mid-1980s more than £1bn of EU funding has been a catalyst for this change in Birmingham. The renaissance of the city has seen EU investments in the National Exhibition Centre, the International Convention Centre, Millennium Point and the town hall, to name just a few notable beneficiaries. But it has also helped reshape the city centre infrastructure by providing funding to remove the old inner-city ring road.
Local businesses have benefitted, too. In the 2007-13 programme, 24,000 West Midlands-based businesses received support through the European Regional Development Fund, which also supported more than 7,000 people to start up a new business. In the same period more than £300m was invested in jobs and skills, which moved around 60,000 people into work, 48,000 into further education and training, and supported 50,000 in gaining new qualifications.
EU funds also helped to respond to crisis such as the closure of the MG Rover plant in 2005, where almost 6,000 people were made redundant and thousands more in the supply chain suffered. With more than £65m of EU funding support, a Rover taskforce was created and by April 2007 90% of the redundant workers were back in work.
Greater Birmingham and Solihull have established an EU funding strategy to outline how £237m of new EU resources for 2014-20 would support a wider strategic economic plan for our area. A quarter of this resource has already been committed to 10 key investments, including a £50m youth employment initiative supporting 16,000 young people into work and a £33m business growth programme providing financial support for more than 500 small and medium businesses, creating 1,300 jobs. The referendum result has now placed these and the remaining 75% of uncommitted potential investments at risk.
Five weeks have passed since the vote to leave areas right across the country are still waiting for the government to reveal its plans for these programmes. In the meantime key investments have stalled. We are still waiting to hear about the fate of funds earmarked for a £250m Midlands Engine loan fund and £22m for green infrastructure developments, with a further £14m of new skills investments are in the pipeline.
If cities such as Birmingham are to continue to lead and grow the regional economy then the uncertainty over EU funding needs to be removed. We urgently need a guarantee that these resources can continue to stimulate and help transform our city regions.
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