For the past 30 years, EU Cohesion Policy has played an influential role in setting priorities for policies aimed at dealing with the effects of European economic integration on regional and social disparities. Although, latterly, the amount of money spent in the UK through the European Structural and Investment Funds has declined, EU programmes have had a disproportionate effect on the design and implementation of UK policies shaping regional and local economic and social development.
A new paper by John Bachtler and Iain Begg in the Journal of Social Policy ‘Cohesion policy after Brexit: the economic, social and institutional challenges’ examines the implications of the loss of Structural Funds for UK regional and social development. It argues that filling the policy vacuum will be far from straightforward because complementary national policies and institutional frameworks have lacked consistency or coherence; the sub-national level, in particular, will need a fresh approach following Brexit.
