Despite weeks of campaigning and countless articles and debates, the Leave and Remain campaigns have consistently failed to connect with voters at a local or regional level.

Yet, the EU has been one of the most active and effective organisations in overcoming regional inequality, with Northern Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, the Tees Valley, and the Scottish Highlands currently receiving the largest amount of EU funding per person. In this blog, I suggest that the EU is as issue of huge regional, as well as national importance, and that the North West of England is a strong case in point.

From 2007 to 2013 the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), which managed the EU’s European Regional Development Fund for the North West, was allocated £755.5 million. During this period it invested in the region’s public transport network, including a £10.8 million contribution for a second tramline in Manchester and £7.9 million for redeveloping Victoria station.

The fund was also used to set up enterprise centres, technology centres, job training, broadband, environmental and renewable energy projects, as well as improved housing. In addition, significant sums were spent on arts and culture (including £3.8 million for the National Football museum, £6.8 million for Media City), healthcare (£4.7 million for the Royal Eye Hospital), universities (£23 million for the National Graphene Centre), and tourism (£14.7 million for Blackpool).

The NWDA was abolished in 2012 but EU money continues to flow to the North West through the European Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF), which combines four EU funds. For 2014-20, the North West region as a whole was allocated over €1.1 billion (£890 million at today’s exchange rate).

This is in stark contrast to the North West’s treatment from Central Government. Liverpool, Knowsley, and Manchester are amongst the English councils with the most severe cuts to their council budgets in the last five years, while in the South East, Wokingham, Surrey, and Windsor and Maidenhead all saw the lowest. These are the three least deprived areas in the country and happen to overlap with the constituencies of Government ministers Theresa May, Jeremy Hunt, Chris Grayling, Philip Hammond and Michael Gove.

The EU’s redevelopment funds are able to act above party politics and to support regions in times of greatest financial need. It has often done a better job than Central Government in ensuring that resources and investment are targeted at the regions that need it most. If the UK economy weakens, it also brings with it the security that EU money will continue to flow to these regions, and even be enhanced.

While the EU’s work in the North West might not be well known, the EU has been a driving force behind investments and innovations that have regenerated and revitalised our regions. This has been at times when they have been too often overlooked by Westminster. Our membership of the EU may have some costs, but it has also empowered some of our most deprived regions. If we leave, it might be too late before we realise just how much the EU has done for us.

For a more detailed discussion of these arguments, see here.

* Dr Paul Richardson is a committed pro-European and works for the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham.