South Yorkshire loses £50m claim in Supreme Court

THE Supreme Court has rejected South Yorkshire’s challenge against the Government into how EU structural funds were allocated, a decision which is thought to have cost the county around £50m.

Councils including Liverpool and Sheffield took the Government to court after it decided to divert EU money from English cities to Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

Lawyers acting for Sheffield and Liverpool city regions claimed the Department for Business Innovation and Skills’ allocation of EU structural funds, intended to help poorer regions build their economies, for the 2014-20 funding round had been unfair.

The seven Supreme Court judges handed down their judgement, albeit by a narrow margin, which ruled that the Business Secretary’s decision to divert up to £50m originally destined for Yorkshire to other parts of the UK was legal.

Speaking on behalf of the councils, Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson said: “This is a disappointing result, but it is clear that the legality of the judgement has split the highest judges in the land, which shows that we made the right decision in appealing it.”

He accused ministers of acting like “Robin Hood in reverse – taking from the poor to give to the rich”.

Councillor Julie Dore, Leader of Sheffield City Council said the judgement was “hugely disappointing”.

“This is another extremely disappointing and frustrating decision, as the government are giving us £50m less in South Yorkshire than we should be receiving. What this funding is about is transforming our economy to create jobs, support businesses and putting our region in a stronger position to attract investment.

“The government’s approach of taking funding away from South Yorkshire and Merseyside to redistribute it to wealthier parts of the country is shameful. We have seen a lot of talk from the government about wanting to grow the economy in the north of England, but we know that actions speak louder than words and the actions of this government are abolishing the Regional Development Agencies, targeting council cuts to councils in the North of England and now this taking EU funding away from the areas most in need of it to give to far wealthier areas.

“Whilst there was a very narrow judgement that the government’s actions were not unlawful, it is clear to almost everyone that they were extremely unjust and even some of the judges that said the decision was lawful came out and described it as “unimpressive”.”

Dore claims that the funding allocation process was “unequal, disproportionate and irrational”, with many other more affluent areas getting higher levels of funding proportionately than South Yorkshire and Merseyside.

She said: “We believe we needed to stand up and challenge the decision, to fight for the huge amount of funding at stake – over £50m for South Yorkshire and over £100m for Merseyside, which would have made a huge difference to our regions.

“The result of the Supreme Court hearing in October reveals just how divisive this issue is.” 

 

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