HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : A Modern Regional Policy for the United Kingdom [March 2023]

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 6 March 2003.

The Government today outlined its contribution to thinking on reform of European regional policy, prioritising the flexible and local delivery of regional policy and reinforcing EU Member States’ shared commitments to economic and social development.

The proposals, which will contribute to the EU debate on the future of Structural Funds:

• respond to European enlargement and the need for growth in all EU nations and regions;
• offer new freedoms and flexibilities to localities and regions, empowering them to build local economic strength;
• promise that if the Government’s proposals are accepted we will provide additional UK government funds for regional policy in the next spending review in place of EU receipts;
• modernise state aid rules to reflect real economic and market effect.

Announcing the proposals at a breakfast meeting with the TUC and CBI the Chancellor Gordon Brown said:

“With our plans to increase UK funding for regional policy, devolve decision-making power to the regions and return key regional policy responsibilities from the European Union back to Britain, the future control of regional economic policy is moving from Brussels to London and then from Westminster to the nations and regions themselves. Creating a new framework which, by enshrining the principle of subsidiarity, provides the flexibility for Member States to pursue the right regional policies to meet their differing needs.”

The Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott commented:

“This approach will support our commitment to a strong, domestic regional policy.  Devolved and decentralised decision-making are at the heart of the Government’s policies. This is true for economic development, as it is for sustainable communities.  The EU framework for Devolved Regional Policy is a further step toward the vision for devolution to the English regions that we set out in ‘Your Region, Your Choice’.”

Trade and Industry Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, said:

“By maintaining a strong European dimension to regional policy, the EU Framework offers benefits to all Member States, old and new. Targeting resources on the poorest countries, rather than spreading it thinly over rich and poor alike, will strengthen the single market and provide more trade opportunities for all UK companies.”