West Midlands European Funds 2014-2020

Patrick WillcocksEuropean and Urban Affairs AdviserMarch 28th 2014

Funds Coming to the Region – Comparison to 2007-2013

2007-13 2014-2020 % Change

ERDF €400m €473m 18%+

ESF €372m €440m 18%+

TOTAL €772m €913M 18%+These Figures exclude the Youth Employment Initiative and EAFRD

Initial Allocations

BIS July 2013

Youth Employment InitiativeGreater Birmingham and Solihull, the Black Country, and Coventry and Warwickshire LEPs are accessing extra ESF resources to tackle youth unemployment under the Youth Employment Initiative for 2014 and 2015

£19.3m£4.1m

£19.0m

Total Including YEI plus EAFRD

YEI19.34.1

19.0

EAFRD0

2.71.17.53.12.2

TOTAL171.2123.2239.1104.9141.561.4

841.3

FocusEU is driving a focussed approach to investment

Under ERDF at least 80% * of funds need to be spent on

• Innovation• Business Competitiveness• Low Carbon (must be at least 20%**)• Digital/ICT

Under ESF – it is easier now to spend money on intermediate and high level skills

* 60% (**and 15%) in Transition regions (such as SSLEP and parts of GBSLEP)

Delivery Arrangements

• Proposed that LEPs will be the key agencies – hence the LEP strategies – submitted in January 2014

• Business process model has been discussed with LEPs• Local Growth teams will work with LEPs• LEPs will chose projects which will then be assessed by

Local Growth teams• In England there will be national ERDF and ESF

programmes (previously only ESF was national)• National Growth Programme Board (Monitoring

Committee) plus sub committees will steer the programmes

Joint working

It is recognised in some circumstance LEPs need to work together. The WM LEPs have initially agreed to two areas where they will work collectively

• Establishing an Access to Finance fund for the West Midlands – worth circa £125m (£50m ERDF)

• On Innovation where a joint approach (called Smart Specialisation) will be undertaken for the Advanced Manufacturing Sector – detailed strategy work

• They are also talking about Business Support/Growth Hubs collaboration

Timetable

• Draft Partnership Agreement and Draft Operational programmes have/are being written.

• These need to be agreed with the European Commission• HMG will consult on the draft Operational programmes• Timetable slipping because EU has a problem with the

LEPs and because • Legal Challenge to allocations from Liverpool and

Sheffield• Hoping to have the programmes up and running by

December 2014

Benefits

• More localised focus than previously• LEPs have made different choices – GBSLEP for

instance seeking to put more into low carbon than required – other LEPs gone for the minimum %

• LEPs have chosen different business sectors to focus on – although obviously some overlap

• LEPs (and projects) can work with any other part of England and in the rest of the EU*

* 15% of funds can be spent outside the England

Benefits

Issues

• Disagreement with the EU over status of the LEPs

• How much control will LEPs actually have?• Potentially difficult for projects seeking to target

the West Midlands as will need to deal with 6 LEPs

• Capacity of the LEPs to deliver – will need funding support from the funds

• Overlap LEPs are talking about protocols

Thank you

Any Questions

These strategies can be accessed from the LEPs’ websites or www.urbanpivot.com

patrick1willcocks@gmail.com