Local government must not lose out on the billions of pounds worth of EU funding it had been promised, council leaders have warned.

Local authorities have been allocated £5.3bn in regeneration cash up to 2020, but the country’s decision to leave the union has put that in jeopardy.

The Local Government Association said: ‘It is important for the Government to guarantee it will protect this vital funding to avoid essential growth-boosting projects stalling and local economies across England being stifled.’

The leader of Northumberland CC Cllr Grant Davey said £108m of European investment funding had come into the county over the past nine years.

He said: ‘Annually £28m of funding comes in directly and indirectly which supports jobs in the county council.

‘Services will be damaged and jobs will be lost if this government doesn’t immediately deliver a plan to replace this now lost funding.

‘There is no doubt that European funding has benefited the county significantly and we now need to take stock, along with the Government and the rest of the country, to mitigate against adverse implications for Northumberland.

Similarly, Cornwall Council has insisted it should be compensated for any funding it would lose.

The council has received an average of £60m a year over the past decade but its residents voted 56.5% in favour of leaving the union.

Birmingham City Council leader John Clancy described the result as a ‘moment of significant change’ and warned the UK was heading into ‘very tricky economic waters’.

However, he reassured residents the council would remain determined to bring investment and economic growth to the city.

He said: ‘We have to find new ways of bringing capital into the region to invest and my message to the Government is that it is time to invest in growth.

‘The Government must now look to the UK’s cities, regions and nations for economic growth and continued austerity is not an option.’