Treasury guarantees post-Brexit funding for projects losing EU cash

The UK government will invest billions into the UK economy to make up for the funding that will be lost when the country formally exits the EU. Chancellor Philip Hammond has promised that there will be cash made available to farmers, scientists and various other projects.

The stimulus, which is expected to cost as much as £4.5bn ($5.81bn) per year, will be awarded to any project that had secured EU funding before this year's Autumn Statement, he said, while agricultural funding will be maintained until 2020 – after which there will be a "transition to new domestic arrangements". There's even the possibility that some projects signed off after the statement could have their funding guaranteed if they are assessed to be of sufficient value.

"We recognise that many organisations across the UK which are in receipt of EU funding, or expect to start receiving funding, want reassurance about the flow of funding they will receive," said Hammond.

He continued: "What we are doing here is guaranteeing that projects that have already been signed or that are going to be signed over the coming months, even if the payment of those funds runs on beyond the time we leave the EU, will be guaranteed by the British government to the recipient.

"The government will also match the current level of agricultural funding until 2020, providing certainty to our agricultural community, which play a vital role in our country. We are determined to ensure that people have stability and certainty in the period leading up to our departure from the EU and that we use the opportunities that departure presents to determine our own priorities."

Britain has not yet begun the formal process of leaving the EU, after the country shocked the world with the result of the referendum in June. Prime Minister Theresa May has said that her government would not trigger Article 50, thereby beginning a two-year process of uncoupling, during 2016. No date to do this has yet been set.

However, the current EU budget round, which runs from 2014 until 2020, already guarantees Britain's funding from the EU. As May has stated that she will not trigger Article 50 until 2017 at the earliest, and the process to leave the EU takes two years, it is likely that Hammond's promise will only have to run between 2019-2020.

This assumes that the UK's Brexit negotiations do not result in a Norway-style deal, which would see the UK continuing to pay money into the EU while receiving the benefits of membership.