Orkney has lost out on vital financial support being short changed by the equivalent of nearly £619,000 through the allocation from the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund.

Commenting on the figures, Highlands and Islands SNP MSP Emma Roddick said:

” Not only did the people of Orkney not vote for Tory Brexit, we are paying a very high price for this disastrous Tory obsession.”

The UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund was supposed to replace the funding we used to get from the EU. Funding which you can see has been put to use across the islands building valuable infrastructure including piers.

£32 million has been allocated to Scotland for 2022-2023 – £151 million short of the £183 million estimated to be an appropriate replacement for EU Structural Funds.

The Scottish Government have said that if we had remained in the EU it is estimated that funding would have been £183 million this year.

Emma Roddick said:

“EU funding has supported infrastructure projects and community initiatives across the country since the 1970s, with Scotland receiving and delivering more than £6 billion of EU Structural Funds.

“Being short-changed again by the Tories, this time to the equivalent of £619 thousand, really adds insult to injury for the people of Orkney.

“This demonstrates exactly why the Tories’ sick joke of ‘levelling up’ actually means our community losing out, with Orkney facing the estimated loss of nearly £619 thousand had Scotland not been taken out of the EU against our will.

“Not only that, the Scottish Government previously made decisions about how best to spend the EU money based on local priorities. Now a UK Tory Government – which Scotland did not vote for and hasn’t done for a lifetime – is cutting Scotland’s elected Government out of the decision-making process. That is both a betrayal of democracy and a disgrace that money will be spent on Tory priorities which will fail to meet the needs of communities in Orkney.

“This is yet another shocking demonstration why the Tories cannot be trusted with Scotland’s future. Scotland deserves better than Partygate liar Boris Johnson’s litany of broken promises.”

Scottish Ministers have been given no role in deciding how funding is allocated and which projects deliver the maximum benefits. Business Minister Ivan McKee in the Scottish Government says this undermines the devolution settlement and does not recognise the authority of the Scottish Government in devolved areas.

The Shared Prosperity Fund will see Scotland allocated £32 million in 2022-2023, £55 million in 2023-24 and £125 million in 2024-25. Even the third year of funding delivers less than Scotland received before the UK’s EU Exit.

The Scottish Government has calculated a sum of £162 million per year would be needed to replace the European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund, increasing to £183 million per year when LEADER funding and the EU Territorial Cooperation Programmes are added in.

How the £151 million lost to Scotland would be broken down across Scottish local authorities on a pro-rata equivalent basis: