EUROPEAN cash totalling £6 million must be committed to projects by December 2020 if the UK leaves the EU without a deal – or risks being lost.

A Brexit deal has been agreed between UK and EU negotiating teams but Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces a huge challenge to win over enough MPs to get it through Parliament.

Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) were set up in 2011 to lead economic growth and job creation in areas across England.

Cheshire and Warrington LEP works with local authorities, businesses and educational institutes to achieve its goals.

The area is one of many to benefit from the EU’s European Social Fund (ESF), which aims to boost employment in member states while promoting ‘economic and social cohesion’.

Cheshire and Warrington LEP confirmed it received an indicative ESF allocation of around £55 million under the current 2014-2020 programme.

Projects with funding allocations totalling £20 million were procured in 2016. All but one of those projects finished in March 2019 or earlier.

Furthermore, projects with funding allocations totalling £29 million were procured in 2018 and are now either live or about to launch.

These schemes include the Pledge Partnership, the Digital Skills Partnership and Accelerate Cheshire and Warrington – a Virtual Institute of Technology.

A final procurement round, with a total allocation of £6 million, will be run before the end of this year.

Cheshire and Warrington LEP says it is not concerned about the future of the projects if the UK leaves the EU, even without a deal.

A spokeswoman added: “The Government has guaranteed that, should the UK leave the EU without a deal, all ESF spend committed before December 31 2020 will be covered.”

It also confirmed projects benefitting from ESF funding in the area must end by December 2023.