6 March 2003
A Modern Regional Policy for the United Kingdom
“The Government is consulting on the proposition that its proposed EU Framework for Devolved Regional Policy should form the basis for a UK position in the debate on the future of the EU Structural and Cohesion Funds.
Under this Framework, EU Member States would agree common principles, but delivery of regional policy would be substantially devolved and offer greater flexibility to Member States and regions. EU support, both financial and institutional, would be refocused on those poorest Member States that will benefit most from direct EU involvement. For other Member States, regional policy would be resourced nationally and delivered according to national priorities, with greater freedom than under the current regime.
Modern regional policy must be locally led, which means substantially devolved. The Government has already introduced devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and is increasing decentralisation in England. It is now time to modernise the European dimension to regional policy and ensure that locally led initiatives have the freedom to make use of the full range of appropriate instruments.”
Comments on the proposals in the consultation document are invited by 4 July 2003.
Email: Kevin Dodds
Tel: 02072705717
Fax: 02074517598
The consultation document is available below in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can download the software free of charge from the Adobe website.
For alternative ways to read PDF documents and further information on website accessibility visit the HM Treasury accessibility page.
Media links
- PDF file of A Modern Regional Policy for the United Kingdom Chapters 1 to 4 (450Kb)
- PDF file of A Modern Regional Policy for the United Kingdom Annexes (115Kb)