How the EU failed Rother Valley
The article below sets out in stark detail how our region has not seen a significant return on investment from our membership of the EU
Since 2007 voters in Yorkshire and Humber have paid over £12billion into the EU. In the period 2007-2013 the region received just £747m in return - and in the subsequent period was earmarked for even less - just £606m. A total return on investment of just £1.3bn - and the vast majority of that rebate goes into Leeds City Region.
The Return on Investment for the people of Rother Valley is shocking - and it will need very strong representation for our area after Brexit when that money is not going to the EU - but into our Govts coffers.
I will hold that Govt accountable at every opportunity for our region - and be a voice for all of us - not just somebody who will be told what to say and how to vote by the Tories or Labour.
From the Egyptian pyramids to the cathedrals in York and Lincoln, buildings have always been used by the powerful to project their dominance.
The European Union hasn't directly built any buildings in our part of the world, but it has helped fund a lot of new developments, many of which come with a sign saying "built with money from the EU".
For some this is the EU projecting "power" in a different way.
The issues of money, power and buildings are interconnected, which is why the debate about how much money the EU spends in our region is important.
But what has the European institution spent in Yorkshire? And how much has Yorkshire and the Humber effectively paid in?
As with all the numbers in this referendum debate, they're hotly disputed by both sides.
If you account for the British rebate, the effective discount on our membership that Margaret Thatcher negotiated in 1984, the UK sent £12.9bn to the European Union in 2015.
As a very rough calculation, when you divide the UK's overall payment by the number of taxpayers in the region, Yorkshire and the Humber contributed about £1bn towards that overall amount.
In comparison, the Yorkshire and Humber received £747m (979m euros) in funding from the EU between 2007 and 2013, according to the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI).
If you accept the rough workings of this calculation, that means we gave the European Union more money in one year than we got back in the space of six years.
However, that doesn't take into account the indirect effect EU money has had on the region such as the additional jobs that have been created because an EU backed project got the go-ahead.
So what exactly has the money gone towards?
York University got the single biggest grant for a new building, with the EU providing £19m in match funding for a new science park.
But it's not just buildings that have been funded. Some £30m was spent on the roll-out of broadband across the region and in total the money has helped create 20,000 new jobs and 2,700 businesses, according to the government.
Was all that money well spent? Well that probably depends on your point of view of the EU as a whole.
Article reproduced from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36420415
