THE UK Government has been urged to provide urgent reassurance that there will not be a “cliff edge” when EU funding ends in Wales.

In a report, the Welsh Affairs Committee accused the Government of making little progress in developing its replacement for EU Structural and Investment (ESI) funding in Wales.

The funding for Wales, currently worth around £375 million per year, is due to be replaced by the Shared Prosperity Fund from January 2021.

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But MPs warn that there is no substantive detail from UK ministers about their plans, with a range of issues remaining unresolved despite just three months to go until the end of the transition period.

Their report calls on the UK Government to provide a firm date for when substantive information about the Shared Prosperity Fund will be made available.

This information would include what it will look like and how it will be funded and administered, the report says.

Stephen Crabb, Conservative MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire and chairman of the Welsh Affairs Committee, said: “The UK’s withdrawal from the European Union and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic makes this an exceptional time, and unique opportunity, to design a more responsive and adaptable system of structural and regional funding.

“However, more than three years after the UK Government announced its intention to replace EU funds with a Shared Prosperity Fund, there is still no clarity as to what this fund will look like.

“This is a simply unacceptable state of affairs. We are calling for the Government to bring forward their proposals and to provide urgent reassurance that there will be no funding cliff edge in January 2021.

“The switch to the Shared Prosperity Fund represents an opportunity to reset and re-evaluate Wales’ economic priorities and to develop a new system that tackles the root causes of Wales’ economic underperformance.

“While there are differences of opinion as to how the fund should be administered, we are clear that the Fund should be built upon the principles of co-operation and partnership between the UK Government, devolved administrations and local government.”

The report also calls for consultation with relevant stakeholders about their priorities for the fund in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

ESI funding has already been repurposed by the Welsh Government to respond to Covid-19.

A spokeswoman for the UK Government said the Shared Prosperity Fund would be “better targeted” than ESI and would match the size of such funds in each nation “as a minimum”.

“Details of the programme are being developed and we will continue to work on it in collaboration with the devolved administration in Wales,” she said.

“We are conscious the EU funding will start to scale down in April 2021 and phased over the next three years, and details of the UKSPF will be published well ahead of this date.

“We thank the committee for the report and will respond to the recommendations in due course.”