Behind the scenes there is a lot of work going on on the new EU funding programmes in the UK from 2014. Two recent announcements are just the tip of the iceberg. Firstly they have announced how they intend the resources allocated to the UK to be shared out between Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England. The totals are

• Northern Ireland €457 million, .
• Scotland with total funding of around €795 million.
• Wales with total allocation of around €2.145bn.
• England with a total allocation of €6.174 billion.

Funds have been reallocated away from the share that EU thinks England should get to ensure that cuts in the funds across the UK are shared fairly.

Full details can be found here

This sets an interesting precedent as it shows that in sharing out the monies amongst the LEPs in England other factors apart from what the EU statistics would indicate will be taken into account. These figures are due out shortly and are eagerly awaited.

Secondly BIS have announced a called for LEP representatives to get involved in the behind the scenes processes. LA’s, the HE and Voluntary sector are already involved and this is a logical extension of the partnership approach. The call can be found here.