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<p>The information requested is provided in the attached table (1). The “contractually
committed” figures are up to 30 September 2014. All contractually committed funding
has had match funding identified, so no separate figures are shown for this.</p><p>Across
the programme, an average of 100% of the programme is now contractually committed.
All spending of taxpayers’ money must ensure value for money; and money should not
be spent on poor quality projects just for the sake of it. Spending must also comply
with complex and bureaucratic EU rules, or else risk “financial corrections” down
the line.</p><p>Where the contractually committed figure is slightly less than the
total allocation, this reflects the restrictive, bureaucratic rules associated with
the whole programme, and the lack of flexibility in the rules.</p><p>To place this
in context, I attach with this answer a table (2) showing the allocations in the 2000-06
programme under the last Labour Government: only 93% of the allocation was ever committed,
leaving £392 million of uncommitted resources; of which £48 million was uncommitted
in the West Midlands Objective 2 area, £64 million uncommitted in the North West Objective
2 area, and £38 million uncommitted in the Yorkshire and the Humber Objective 2 area.</p><p>In
this context, despite the complexities, the 2007-13 programme has been far better
administered under this Government than the 2000-06 programme under the last Administration.</p><p>The
European Regional Development Fund is a circular programme. UK taxpayers’ money is
given to the European Union budget. Under the Fund, a local project receives a contract,
spends money and then claims from DCLG. DCLG then claims funds back from the European
Commission. The whole process goes through a complex auditing process involving DCLG
auditors and then European Union auditors. After a period of time, the majority of
unspent funding is returned to the UK Government by the European Commission. We continue
to have concerns over the bureaucratic and time consuming nature of the processes
involved in the programme, as a consequence of rules imposed by the European Commission.</p><p>
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