Search icon

News

24th Jun 2016

An alarming aspect about leaving the EU is the potential for poor British areas to get poorer

It could have a huge impact...

Richard Beech

Uncertainty is the theme of the day after Britain voted to leave the EU.

Perhaps the most eye-raising statistic to come out of this referendum was that the Leave vote was strongest in the regions of the UK that are most economically dependent on the EU.

Unless our government introduces measures to redistribute wealth away from London in order to levy the investment in the areas that will be lost as a result of leaving the EU, some of the UK’s poorer areas could plunge further.

Despite its residents voting 57% in favour to leave the EU, Cornwall – one of the areas of the UK most dependent on EU investment – is now demanding “urgent” action from the UK government to invest an extra £60m a year in the county.

Nigel Farage has already said it was a “mistake” for the Leave campaign to promise the amount of funding for the NHS that they had been quoting throughout the campaign.

So there are, unfortunately, no guarantees that the EU’s investment in some of our poorest areas will be matched by the UK government after we leave the EU.

Topics:

EU,EU Ref,Wales