EU cash worth millions of pounds to the New Forest has been guaranteed by the Government until at least 2020.

The referendum result had thrown into doubt as much as £3.8 million of allocated funding for environmental schemes in the area — including crucial payments to commoners for putting out stock, such as ponies.

But the chancellor, Philip Hammond, has promised that whenever the UK eventually leaves the EU, the Government would keep the money supply going at least until the end of all agreed projects.

In the New Forest, £19 million of combined EU and Treasury money has been locked in for projects under the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme (HLS), a 10-year agreement — the largest of its kind in Europe — that ends in 2020.

But the Brexit vote put a question mark over how much of it the New Forest would receive once the Government triggers Article 50, which starts a two-year countdown for the UK formally to leave the EU.