West Yorkshire was handed control of almost £400 million of vital EU investment aid yesterday, as the Government stepped up its ‘devolution drive’.

The cash will give the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) its first major funding stream, after years of criticism that it is “toothless”.

Since the abolition of the regional development agencies, EU structural funds have been administered by Whitehall. Allocations for 2014-20 – including £391.2m for Leeds City Region – will now be made to the LEPs.

It will be handed over from next year, 12 months before the creation of “single funding pots”, acting on a landmark report by Lord Heseltine.

Ministers also gave more detail of those pots, revealing that LEPs will bid for a share of funds for transport (£1.2bn), further education (£330m), skills (£170m) and housing (£400m).

The announcement came as Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander revealed to the Commons the Government’s £100bn infrastructure plan for 2015 to 2020, which includes:

  • £10bn for road repairs over five years – enough to resurface 21,000 miles of road and 19 million potholes a year.
  •  £3bn to build 165,000 affordable homes over three years
  • £800m for the green investment bank, which will also be allowed to borrow £500m.
  •  £250m to ensure superfast broadband reaches 95 per cent of the population by 201, instead of 90 per cent by 2015 l £370m for flood defences, to protect 400,000 homes.

But the much-hyped investment pledge was criticised as “hot air” – lacking detail and stretching years into the future.

Critics pointed out the infrastructure budget in 2015-16 would actually fall in real terms and remains way below the sum the Coalition inherited in 2010.

Furthermore, progress has been painfully slow so far – of 500 projects promised in the last infrastructure plan, in 2011, only seven are under way Roger Marsh, the LEP’s incoming chairman, said the £2bn sum in the “funding pot” – which all 37 LEPs will bid for – was “less than we had hoped”.

But he added: “If the Leeds City Region Partnership can win a sizeable allocation, as well as have control over EU funds and the new money announced for the Regional Growth Fund, then we can make a big contribution to growth and jobs in our economy.

“We, alongside Government, agree that LEPs should be at the very heart of driving growth and with the right support we have the potential to deliver considerable results.”

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