When the development officers got cut in the midlands the Under 16s league shrunk from 9 to 4 teams and the Under 18 league folded. Having said that the introduction of a professional academy in the midlands is partly responsible and it is better to have players playing a proper rugby league structure than having RU players get a run out in summer. Furthermore one club (North Derbyshire Chargers) fielding a team in Yorkshire and recruited from other clubs in the region, having a good go of things.

The Welsh and Irish leagues are pretty fragile as things are but probably should scrape through, Scotland is slightly more stable IMO.

Looks like several cut backs though with French clubs ditched from the Challenge Cup and the possible scrapping of the Northern Rail Cup. Also it seems likely the Challenge Cup will have fewer entrants as they had to start qualifying now last season (but maybe that's just because of the world cup) and amateurs not told if they're in.

The Conference League South introduced last year appears to be losing the one sole representative from the greater south east area, but probably not a bad thing if the London Premier can be considered a parallel league (there are lots of strong enough clubs in the South East but 4 out of 5 withdrew their bids last year when the RFL withdrew proposed travel subsidies). The Under 19s academy is probably being cut back to 10 teams but this should hopefully strengthen the amateur game and the quality of the academy league

I suspect non-heartland expansion will increasingly be carried out through Championship 1 clubs with an academy structure propped up by 2 elite amateur divisions (one for Midlands/South West/South Wales and one for London/East/South East) with less emphasis on cramming as many teams as possible into a 10 game RU off season (whilst letting that level of the game continue). Good news in this respect is that Valley Cougars have been accepted from Wales into the Conference League South.

It's the responsibility of the WRL, SRL and RLI, with support from the RLEF.

The main reason is that the funding from Sport England can't be spent on the Celtic Nations, if Scots, Welsh or Irish need funding get it from your own country.

Indeed. If the RFL were to carry on as before, what other activities should they cut instead?

Bailing out SL clubs for a start.

As long as the money is spent on overseas crocks and not development of the game as a whole, I cannot see the problem.
SL clubs are firm believers in that.
Why anyone thinks that development should be funded at all is beyond me. It should be done free of charge, using facilities the RSPCA would ban from keeping animals in.
Don't forget that is easier to buy something than apply hard work and do it yourself and if it doesn't work blame someone else.