Dear editor,
I am writing in response to the article Restoring pride to Britain’s most deprived neighbourhoods. It is presented as “an ambitious government plan to hand power and funding to local people to rebuild community pride”.
Although it certainly is better than doing nothing, I would not describe £5bn over ten years for all the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods as “ambitious”. Just in 2018, the EU provided £5.9bn in funds aimed at reducing economic and social inequalities in the most deprived areas of the UK, the House of Commons Library shows.
And whilst some will say “this was OUR money we paid into the EU that we got back”, I would like to point out that the Brexiters decided we should take this money away from the most disadvantaged regions in the UK, and spend on the NHS instead. Remember the red bus!
Also, let’s not forget the fact Brexit is doing so much damage to the UK economy, tax revenues are 10s of billions lower than they would have been had the UK stayed in the EU, and there is even less money to spend to level up the most disadvantaged communities.
C. de Winter
Formby
More from East Anglia Bylines
Subscribe to our newsletters
Each of our Bylines sends a newsletter every month and we also send out a ‘Best of Bylines, featuring a selection of the best articles from across the network
