What is Objective One?

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Objective One is a European Union initiative to help regions throughout the EU improve their economic performance.

To qualify for this funding, a region had to be ‘under-performing’ against the European Union (EU) average, i.e below 75 per cent of the average performance, as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per head of population. GDP is a standard measure of economic activity in a country or region.

The first Objective One Programme for Merseyside ran from 1994-2000 and saw £605 million of European funding invested in 4690 projects. These included Princes Dock infrastructure, Estuary and Industry business parks in Speke and Merseyside Special Investment Fund.

Despite tremendous improvements in the economy during the 1990s, Merseyside still qualified for Objective One assistance for a second time in 2000 to cover the period 2000-2006.

In order to qualify for funds, the UK Government, through the Government Office for the North West (GONW), in association with a range of partners from Merseyside, had to make a bid to the European Commission (EC). This bid was known as the Single Programming Document (SPD). It outlined in great detail how the money would be spent and the outputs (e.g jobs; new business start-ups; training places) that would be generated.

So, Objective One was a major investment fund for Merseyside to boost the area’s economic performance.

To receive 'Objective One' funding each project must:

Attracted match funding
Been from an eligible applicant
Been a project that was eligible
Been a project that could not have been supported fully from other funding and was in addition to what would have happened anyway
Be located within one of the 5 Merseyside boroughs (Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens or Wirral)

Objective One areas

The EU granted "Objective One' status to many regions throughout the EU for the 2000 - 2006 period. These are shown on the map below:

Aims and Objectives

In order to secure the Objective One investment for Merseyside, Government Office North West and partners had to submit a Single Programming Document (SPD) to the EC. This document outlined Merseyside’s case for funding and included a number of aims and objectives for the Programme as well as the partners vision for the area.

The Vision

The vision was to achieve "A world class city-region that attracts people to live, work, invest and visit".

Aims

The aims of the programme were:

• To improve the economy of Merseyside and the wealth generation activity of its residents and businesses through the creation of a competitive, knowledge-driven economy focused on growth, higher skills, entrepreneurship, and world-class management skills.

• To reduce unemployment and increase employment and the prosperity of the people of Merseyside to a level closer to the rest of the North West.

• To raise educational attainment and skills levels through the creation of an active, effective and inclusive lifelong learning community.

• To create an environment for growth that will stimulate economic activity, and which capitalises on the unique natural character and architectural, historic, cultural and sporting heritage of Merseyside to create a premier European city-region.

• To reduce economic and social disparities within Merseyside, build sustainable neighbourhoods, and ensure equality of opportunity for all Merseyside people and communities.

Objectives

The Objectives of the Objective One Programme were:

To make progress towards convergence between Merseyside’s GDP per capita and that for the UK by supporting projects which would result in a forecast £1,074m net additional new value-added and £461m net additional value-added safeguarded.
To make progress towards convergence between Merseyside’s level of unemployment and that for the UK by supporting projects that would result in a forecast 40,149 net additional jobs created (FTEs) and 17,219 net additional safeguarded jobs.
To make progress towards bringing the level of unemployment in the Pathways areas into line with that for Merseyside as a whole by supporting projects which would result in 10,500 Pathways residents gaining employment.

Progress in all target areas, as well as expenditure, was monitored at each partnership board meeting and in annual reports submitted to the EC and the UK Government.

Figures published in January 2005 by the EU’s statistical agency, Eurostat, revealed that Merseyside’s previously struggling economy had begun to turn around – by 2002 its GDP stood at 76.13 per cent of the EU average. When the 10 latest entrants to the EU were included in calculations, Merseyside GDP reached 83.44 per cent.
In addition to the global Aims and Objectives the Programme had several key targets

A spreadsheet of the Programme's key targets can be viewed here (36kb Excel file).

Since the programme was launched in the summer of 2000 £910 million of European funding has been formally awarded to more than 1,700 projects. All remaining funding has been allocated to projects and will shortly be confirmed through formal grant offer letters.

The total cost of these projects, including other public, voluntary and private sector contributions is over £2.3 billion.

This investment is on track to:

• create over 54,000 new jobs (gross)

• safeguard more than 25,000 existing jobs (gross)

• support over 360,000 training courses

• lead to 142,322 new qualifications

• help 18,008 small and medium size businesses

• assist 6,255 business start-ups

• provide 515,627 sqm of new or improved business space

• reclaim 374 hectares of ‘brownfield’ land

Although the benefits of the programme can already be seen across the city region, many projects are still underway and some will continue to spend their funding until 31st December 2008. Therefore, the full impact of the programme will not be felt for some time and the region will continue to benefit long into the future.