|
Supreme Court narrowly
rejects European funding appeal
THE Supreme Court has narrowly rejected
an appeal brought by local authorities; including Liverpool; against the
allocation of European funding from 2014 to 2020. Lawyers for Liverpool
City Region and Sheffield City Region brought a joint
action arguing the reduction was disproportionate compared to other areas.
Within the Court proceedings the Government admitted that if they had treated
all the English regions the same, then Merseyside would have got an additional
€24 million. Even this falls far short of the original allocation from the EU,
which was over €100 million higher for Merseyside.
By 4 votes to 3, the 7 Supreme Court Justices considered the decision was legal.
One Lord was initially minded to allow the appeal, but subsequently changed his
mind; and described the Secretary of State's decision as lawful, but
"unimpressive."
Another, Lord Carnworth, who recommended that the Appeal should be allowed,
described the Government's allocation as:- "manifestly inappropriate."
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. We maintain
that as Liverpool is one of the most deprived areas in the country, the
Government should have fully assessed this to make sure there was no unfair
discrimination when making its decision. European funding is meant to
tackle economic inequality, yet as the poorest area in the north west we were
awarded far less funding per head than the rest of the region, including
wealthier areas such as Cheshire. The bottom line is that the Government
took €275 million of funding allocated to English regions such as Liverpool and
gave it instead to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They dressed this up as
protecting them from being disproportionately affected by funding changes, yet
the reality is that in percentage terms we have lost twice as much as they stood
to lose. The Government has played the role of Robin Hood in reverse;
taking from the poor to give to the rich. I am calling on them to do the
right thing and reconsider. But I won't hold my breath." |
