UK Treasury to Continue Paying Grants to EU-Funded Businesses After Brexit

London will continue paying grants to UK businesses after Brexit.

LONDON (Sputnik) — The United Kingdom’s Treasury will guarantee continued funding of British businesses and other organizations that secure EU grants before Brexit, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced Monday.

"I can offer some additional certainty to British business and other organizations bidding to receive EU funding while we are still a member [of EU]," Hammond said at a Conservative party conference.

Speaking before a Tory gathering in Birmingham, the chancellor vowed that the Conservative government was ready to take "whatever steps are necessary" to shield the economy from post-Brexit "turbulence."

"The Treasury will offer a guarantee to bidders whose projects meet UK priorities and value-for-money criteria that, if they secure multi-year EU funding before we exit, we will guarantee those payments after Britain has left the EU, protecting British jobs and business after Brexit," he explained.

The UK finance chief stressed that funding had already been confirmed for projects signed prior to this year’s autumn statement, which is due on November 23.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May said last Sunday that her government wanted to trigger formal EU exit proceedings by the end of March 2017, nine months after a majority of Britons voted to quit the bloc in the June 23 referendum.