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All RDAs across England are closing by March 2012 (see transition and closure section). With our resources reducing steadily, this page has not been recently updated and the information below may not be current. If in doubt, please contact us directly.

ERDF investments

August 2010

Following the announcement regarding the abolition of RDAs, some confusion arose over the future of the European Regional Development Fund. ERDF is managed on behalf of the region by the South West RDA.

The Department for Communities and Local Government  (CLG) issued a letter on 16 July agreed by colleagues in the Treasury and BIS. It states that RDAs will continue to administer ERDF until new arrangements are in place. However the existing moratorium remains on RDAs providing match funding from their “single pot” where this goes into the 2011/12 financial year and beyond.

For ERDF investments in the current financial year, the South West RDA as managing agents will need to check projects meet the following criteria:

  • Obtain assurance that match funding for new projects does not come from RDAs’ own resources (Single Pot) after 2010/11
  • Identify all prospective projects that contain especially large sums of public sector matched funding, especially where these come from a national government source, and discuss these with HM Treasury and BIS colleagues
  • Review the rate of commitment by each individual region in order that successor organisations will be able to look to ERDF to help fund their priorities within the confines of the Lisbon criteria and the existing commitments
  • Ensure that projects are not novel and contentious.


In terms of projects funded by ERDF under the Grant for Business Investment, the RDA must ensure:

  • the ERDF money is private sector matched
  • no RDA Single Pot money is being given to the project
  • the project is part of an overall programme that has received PMC approval already
  • the relevant RDAs comply with the terms of the CLG letter of 16 July.
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