Decisions about European funding from 2014 have yet to be made Wales may qualify for the highest level of European funding for the third time, according to new figures measuring the wealth of the nation.
Provisional statistics from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) suggest Wales will fail to reach 75% of the average UK figure.
The 2009 statistics suggest the gross valued added (GVA) figure per head for Wales is 74.3%.
Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan called it “hugely disappointing”,
Ms Gillan said the figures, which were released on Wednesday, “show that under the final year of the previous government Wales was still the poorest part of the UK and the prosperity gap with the rest of the UK is widening”.
“The prosperity level in Wales is now below what it was when the Welsh assembly was created in 1999 and is significantly below the level it was at in 1989 under the last Conservative government.
“This coalition government will continue to work with the Welsh Assembly to take direct action to restore business confidence”
Cheryl Gillan Welsh Secretary
She added the “figures show the scale of the task in front of us to turn the Welsh economy around and will only harden our resolve to tackle this stark prosperity gap between Wales and the rest of the UK”.
“This coalition government will continue to work with the Welsh assembly to take direct action to restore business confidence, encourage more private sector growth and inward investment into Wales,” she said.
Whilst decisions about regional EU funding for 2014 onwards have yet to be made, it’s likely that qualification for the next round of aid would depend on GVA statistics for a three year period such as 2007 to 2009.
The GVA for Wales in 2007 was 74.6%, 74.1% in 2008 and 74.3% in 2009 – giving an average in the region of 74.3%.
If this level of GVA continues, then it is conceivable that the poorest regions of Wales would qualify for the highest level of aid again.
This is despite the investment of billions of pounds of European funding in the poorest parts of Wales since 1999.
About £3bn in Objective 1 European funding was received in 1999 to 2006 and another £2bin in convergence funding from 2007 to 2013.
The ONS statistics reveal that west Wales and the valleys – which benefited from both types of European funding – has the lowest GVA per head of all the comparable regions in the UK.
GVA per head in 2008 was just £12,860 – which is 62.6% of the UK average.
This is likely to lead to further questions about the way in which European funding has been spent in Wales over the last decade.
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