Post-Brexit regional economic development policy in the UK? Some enduring lessons from European Union Cohesion Policy

Abstract

The UK has been a recipient of European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy funding since its inception, and it has played a key role ever since in local and regional economic development across the UK. However, in the run up to the Brexit referendum in 2016, discussions about the significance of EU Cohesion Policy funding to the UK’s cities and regions, which have benefitted from this support for decades, was not a major topic of discussion. Paradoxically, the demise of EU Cohesion Policy in the UK, post-Brexit, comes precisely at a time when spatial inequalities are rising. Moreover, real questions remain about the UK government’s commitment to tackling regional economic development in the coming years. Having said that, as this Commentary discusses, several decades of EU Cohesion Policy implementation in the UK do provide a number of significant policy lessons, which should inform the contours of future UK regional economic development policy.