The amount of money Cornwall looks set to receive from Government to replace European funding that will be lost after Brexit is “staggeringly low” says the county’s senior councillor for economic development.

As one of the poorest regions in the European Union, Cornwall has received many hundreds of millions of pounds over the last two decades through schemes such as the European Social Fund and the European Regional Development Fund.

This money has been used to invest in a huge range of projects large and small to benefit business, employment and growth including Cornwall’s University, Superfast broadband, Cornwall Airport Newquay, road improvements and the Eden Project.

More locally, EU money was used to create the Liskeard Together Project boosting skills, training and employment to target one of the most deprived areas in the country – and plans to transform the Cattle Market will also rely on EU funding.

Pretty much everywhere you look in Cornwall where there’s been innovation and improvement you may well see the blue flag with the stars, indicating that EU money has contributed to making a project happen.

But now Councillor Tim Dwelly, who is Cornwall’s Cabinet member for the Economy, says that Cornwall could be set to get a fraction of the money it would have had, had we stayed in the EU.

The Shared Prosperity Fund is the Government’s plan for replacing the money that would have come from the EU. Cornwall Council has submitted a request to the Government for £700m over the next 10 years to replace funding which it was set to get due to being one of the poorest regions in the EU.

However there are now concerns that in the first year of the Government’s new funding programme Cornwall could get just 5% of what it needs at most.

Cllr Dwelly issued a statement saying that the Government spending review, recently announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, indicated that Cornwall would be “significantly worse off” under the proposed new Shared Prosperity Fund.

He said: “To stand still, with EU levels of funding, Cornwall would have needed the Government to commit to at least £100m a year from the Shared Prosperity Fund. This was the pledge made unequivocally by Prime Minister Boris Johnson before the 2019 General Election. We now know this pledge is broken.

“Instead of matching the current EU funding, Cornwall will at best get just over half of this amount – and we don’t even know when yet. If Cornwall’s current allocation of EU structural funds in the UK (3.8%) is repeated in the new fund that replaces it, it will get £57m a year.

“This is way, way short of the £100m we need just to stand still. Far from being levelling up, it’s actually levelling down.”

The key concern in the immediate future is the amount of money that Cornwall might get from the Shared Prosperity Fund in 2021.But with the Government announcing that the initial funding pot will be £220m for the entire country there are fears that Cornwall could get just £1.8m in the first year.Cllr Dwelly said: “The Chancellor announced that next year, just as the EU funding ends, only £220m of pilot funding will be made available for the whole UK. Here in Cornwall and Scilly, if this amount is distributed in in the same way as the Government’s previous Growth Deal, Cornwall will only get £1.8m in a year it needed £100 million to stand still.“Even if Cornwall and Scilly’s LEP region were given the same amount as all LEP regions, the figure would only reach £5.9 million.“These figures are staggeringly low. This is a year in which Cornwall is trying to tackle the huge economic damage of Covid here. And it is the year Brexit happens, deal or no deal. It is genuinely shocking to think that Government expects Cornwall to gear up for these huge challenges with about 5% of the budget we need."