CORNWALL Council faces “significant staff redundancies” if the Government does not replace vital funding next year.

Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly were allocated £137-million through the Conservative government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Rural Prosperity Fund in April 2022. The levelling up fund, which has benefited over 200 organisations across the Duchy and replaced EU finding following Brexit, comes to an end in March 2025.

There are growing concerns that the new Labour government, which is already making huge cuts it says is due to a financial chasm left by the Tory administration, will not replace the Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) for Cornwall.

The matter was raised during a finance scrutiny meeting on Tuesday, September 10 while discussing the new White Paper for a devolution deal for Cornwall. Councillors heard that there was no replacement fund yet announced by the Government, but it would be discussed as part of the next budget.

Cornwall Council’s chief executive Kate Kennally said the local authority she oversees now awaits the outcome of the Chancellor’s speech on October 30 to find out Cornwall’s fate.

She said Cornwall faced the “steepest cliff edge” compared to other places in the country given the significant difference in the per capita allocation of SPF which the Duchy receives. She said if there was no sign of alternative funding in the Budget, the council will have to make a series of difficult decisions that will include some “significant staff redundancies in Cornwall Council – things like our economic development service, which has significant numbers of posts which are funded through SPF”.

Ms Kennally added: “The council is preparing for a number of different scenarios, which the council will need to enact from November 1 if that clarity isn’t there, because we will not have the funding from April 1 to fund some of the key posts and activities that this council undertakes.”

Mebyon Kernow leader Cllr Dick Cole said: “We had more money than most, but less than we were expecting. Whether we get devolution or not, we should still be banging the drum for SPF. If we do get devolution, we should be banging the drum for SPF and asking for even stronger mechanisms for us to deal with it within Cornwall.”