Question to the Wales Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to the Answer of 19 November 2018 to Question 191441 on UK Shared Prosperity Fund: Wales, whether he has made an assessment of the potential effect on the Welsh economy and regional development of a lower level of Shared Prosperity Fund funding than that received under the European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund in Wales.

Future decisions on funding will form part of the 2019 Spending Review, but in the meantime the draft Withdrawal Agreement states that the UK would continue to participate in 2014-2020 programmes until they close. Further, due to the Government’s guarantee for EU-funded programmes, UK organisations, including those in Wales, will receive funding in the unlikely event that the Withdrawal Agreement is not ratified.

The UK’s exit from the EU provides us with an opportunity to reconsider how funding for growth across the UK is designed and delivered. Our manifesto committed to creating a UK Shared Prosperity Fund, of which the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government published further details in a Written Ministerial Statement on 24 July.