The UK has been a recipient of European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy funding since its inception, and it has played a key role ever since in local and regional economic development across the UK. However, in the run up to the Brexit referendum in 2016, discussions about the significance of EU Cohesion Policy funding to the UK’s cities and regions, which have benefitted from this support for decades, was not a major topic of discussion. Paradoxically, the demise of EU Cohesion Policy in the UK, post-Brexit, comes precisely at a time when spatial inequalities are rising. Moreover, real questions remain about the UK government’s commitment to tackling regional economic development in the coming years. Having said that, as this Commentary discusses, several decades of EU Cohesion Policy implementation in the UK do provide a number of significant policy lessons, which should inform the contours of future UK regional economic development policy.

中文翻译：

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英国脱欧后的区域经济发展政策？欧盟凝聚政策的一些经久不衰的教训

自成立以来，英国一直是欧盟 (EU) 凝聚政策资金的接受国，自那时起，它在英国各地的地方和区域经济发展中发挥了关键作用。然而，在 2016 年英国脱欧公投之前，关于欧盟凝聚政策资金对英国城市和地区的重要性的讨论，几十年来一直受益于这种支持，并不是讨论的主要话题。矛盾的是，英国脱欧后欧盟凝聚政策的消亡恰恰发生在空间不平等加剧的时候。此外，关于英国政府在未来几年解决区域经济发展问题的承诺仍然存在真正的问题。话虽如此，正如本评论所讨论的那样，