Battle for regeneration funding shifts to Eastern Europe
Nov 3 2008 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal
SPENDING chiefs are searching Europe for vital new funding sources as an EU cashpot that built the North dries up.
The European funding which provided cash for projects such as The Sage Gateshead and the Millennium Bridge is to be replaced as regeneration cash is diverted to Eastern Europe.
The North East has been told from now on it should look to transnational funding in which billions of pounds worth of investment is available but only to regions which successfully compete against the rest of Europe.
From 2013 onwards the North East will be forced to partner up with other regions and convince the European Commission it can be trusted with billions in research spending.
Euro-MP Fiona Hall last night said from now on the regions success or failure in Europe was in our own hands.
The withdrawal of European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) comes despite parts of Tyneside, Durham and Teesside still suffering from pockets of deeply embedded deprivation and low income.
Because the North East is grouped together and judged on its overall income levels based on GDP figures the regions success is likely to mean European cash is withdrawn.
Kevan Carrick, North East spokesman for the Royal Institute of Charted Surveyors, said the region was not yet ready to go it alone without European cash.
It is not very helpful to have had the certainty of this fund removed and an element of competition introduced.
When you are trying to regenerate very rundown and deprived parts of the region you need that level of certainty.
Andrew Kerr, chief executive at North Tyneside Council, recently took over as chair of the North Easts European Strategy group and is overseeing a rethink in the regions EU priorities. He said: ERDF has been a great benefit to the region but we now feel we are not guaranteed any more funds from that section and we have to look at what is available.
Now more than ever it is important that we have a presence in Europe and vital that we can influence the new funding streams that are emerging.
Mr Kerr said the region had to be as involved as it can be to ensure European cash continues to head to the North East. Even now when we are still spending the last round of ERDF we have to make sure we are doing the groundwork to put us in the right position and allow us to take advantage of the funds.
Euro-MP Stephen Hughes said the regions MEPs must lobby the European Commission to ensure there is still a dedicated pot for the areas of the region which suffer from deprivation.
Mr Hughes said: The discussions are going on now as to what the funds will look like after 2013. We are pushing to secure funds for the parts of the North East that still need help.
There is a lot of money, billions of pounds, available if we can compete for it, and that will increasingly be the main source of European funding.
Mr Hughes said the region was effectively swapping the certainty of ERDF cash for the possibility of more money from transnational projects.
