Lost funding due to EU exit
-
Posts
-
I would just like to know how much EU funding comes to North Wales. I can see where money goes to the South.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/asked-people-south-wales-valleys-11157022
North Wales along with the rest of Wales is in receipt of European Structual Funds (ESF). This is given to areas in the EU that are recognised as being areas of poverty. In Wales’ case the country is spilt down the middle with West Wales receiving 2/3 more than East Wales, this is because there is more employment (or was) in the East due to the higher level of industries found on the England Wales boarder.
Some of the funding is managed by the voluntary sector by the Wales Council of Volunteer Actiom (WCVA) This has been used for trying to improve the employability skills of disadvantaged people. The aims are good by like the road to hell its paved with good intentions.
Firstly after a decade or more of Labour dominated Welsh Gov they should hang their collective heads in shame that Wales is in receipt of funding due to poverty.
Secondly the fund is very badly administrated, the programs are poorly designed, they take far too long to implement and have a habit like all the other WG anti-poverty measure of only helping the people they employ rather than the people they are meant to help.
Thirdly like other EU funding the rules and regs are over complicated and contradictory. For example, one project tender application required a organisation to set out how they would met environmental targets. If these were not robust they would not be awarded funding. However once in receipt of funding they had to keep all evidence in hard copy for at least 20 years due to the long delay in projects being audited by EU. These projects generate enough paper to decimate the New Forest and then some.
Fourthly the fund has been delivered over a set period usually 7 years, with an 18-24 month delay as the next round of funding is negotiated. This means that staff on the projects who have come to grips with the rules and regs of running an ESF project will be disbursed to other employment and every new funding cycle they have to start again with new staff who have to spend limited time learning the ins and outs of the overly complicated systems.
So yes North Wales does receive funding but it comes with strings and has not produced the long term benefits it was designed to do.Thank you Mrs Crewe. It does sound a complicated procedure. No wonder politicians on various TV panels couldn’t answer what appeared to be straight forward questions. They probably didn’t understand either.
I wonder whether Wales would have lost EU funding when some of the newer poorer countries joined.
It would seem that the Welsh Assembly Government now need to earn their pay to make sure that Wales as a whole receives what it is due from Westminster and to make sure also that it is spent wisely and fairly. So much money appears to be spent in the South on infrastructure, with little coming to the North at present, please correct me if I am wrong.Mrs Crewe you clearly have had the ‘pleasure’ of handling EU funding- I fully agree that the administrative nature of such funds is at best a joke and worst is farcical- their are bureaucrats that must be paid specifically to develop red tape. That said as I posted earlier there has been substantially more coming into Wales than we have contributed so we are a net gainer- with the funding going to be administered by Westminster my fear will not be driven by actual need in Wales but based on how much we contribute to the pot determines how much we get out – this will undoubtedly be negative ratio.
Reduce the red tape and still have the same funding would be the ideal..
Your point over the shame of still receiving EU funding due to the lack of improvement in poverty can equally be said about Communities First funding in Caia Park and Plas Madoc — millions and millions poured in yet we still have the same families being ‘beneficiaries’ — the sad thing is that over 30 years of investment and the same family names are still on the books of professionals as needing help… and taking up column inches in newspaper court reports when they have been to court. Again!! (sorry for generalisation and O fully acknowledge that the majority of families in Caia and Plas Madoc are good law abiding and not a drain on the system)Figures taken from Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University.
“Key findings:
• Wales’ current budget balance in 2014-15 was a deficit of £13.2 billion, down from the £14.1
billion deficit recorded in 2011-12.
• Wales’ net fiscal balance in 2014-15 was a deficit of £14.7 billion. This deficit has reduced from
£15.8 billion in 2010-11.
• The improvement in Wales’ fiscal aggregates since 2010-11 was caused by total expenditure
for Wales growing only by £1.4 billion, or 3.9% in nominal terms, which was only one third of
the growth rate in current revenue (12.3%).
• Wales’ net fiscal deficit as a share of estimated GDP in 2014-15 was 23.9%, down from an
estimated 29.2% in 2010-11. The UK net fiscal deficit as a share of GDP also improved during
this period, from 8.6% in 2010-11 to 4.9% in 2014-15.
• In 1999-00, the estimated net fiscal balance for Wales was a deficit of £5.1 billion, or 14.5% of
estimated GDP, but grew to £8.0 billion (20.1% of GDP) by 2002-03.
• As across the UK as a whole, the onset of the financial crisis in 2007-08 severely worsened Wales’
fiscal aggregates. Declining revenues, increasing expenditure (particularly on social protection)
and contracting GDP meant that the net fiscal deficit reached a peak of £15.9 billion in 2009-10, equivalent to 30.3% of estimated GDP.”So the deficit is worse than 10 years ago.
Westminster currently subsidises Wales £13.2 Billion per year.Well, well, and now a third store announced closing in Wrexham.
So once we leave the EU, of the few thousands EU nationals living in Wrexham areas (polish,portuguese, slovakians, etc.) half might have to leave. from the other half some will have enough basic knowledge of economics to flip a finger to a country that is going straight downhill, regardless of what politicians or local newspaper may claim, and will decide to leave on their own accord. Those few thousand people that you all hate so much are the actually paying customers on our streets. I wonder how many more shops will close after that?
[quote quote=115468]Well, well, and now a third store announced closing in Wrexham.
So once we leave the EU, of the few thousands EU nationals living in Wrexham areas (polish,portuguese, slovakians, etc.) half might have to leave. from the other half some will have enough basic knowledge of economics to flip a finger to a country that is going straight downhill, regardless of what politicians or local newspaper may claim, and will decide to leave on their own accord. Those few thousand people that you all hate so much are the actually paying customers on our streets. I wonder how many more shops will close after that?
[/quote]
I think that you might be on the wrong thread mate. This one is about funding
[quote quote=115447]
So the deficit is worse than 10 years ago.
Westminster currently subsidises Wales £13.2 Billion per year.
[/quote]Close to the current £11 Billion per year to Scotland.
Thank Goodness Leanne Wood and Nicola Sturgeon have the good sense to leave independence at the bottom of their party agendas. *cough
An indirect funding issue is where in earth are we going to find sufficient workers to be taxed to feed the UK system in the first place. The figures below quite clearly show a reduction in the working age population and a massive increase in the retired population of 65 plus. Aa a country we are not self sufficient for the number of people needed to keep out society in Wales sustainable- if our Migrant workforce decided to leave then we are doomed as any form of independent country. It wont be the EU we are looking for handouts by the UK – this is on one occasion the vote out have failed our future generations — your children and grand children.
For anyone who voted out please explain what your solution is to the shirtage of tax raising people in Wales?A report, produced by the Office for National Statistics, on trend-based population projections by age and sex.
Key points
The population of Wales is projected to increase by 3.1 per cent to 3.19 million by 2024 and by 6.1 per cent to 3.28* million by 2039.
The number of children aged under 16 is projected to increase to 572,000 by 2023 before fluctuating between 2024 and 2039, with a population of 567,000 in 2039. Overall, the number of children is projected to increase by 2.3 per cent between 2014 and 2039.
The number of people aged 16-64 is projected to decrease by 95,000 (5.0 per cent) between 2014 and 2039.
The number of people aged 65 and over is projected to increase by 292,000 (44 per cent) between 2014 and 2039.http://gov.wales/statistics-and-research/national-population-projections/?lang=en
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
