15 February 2008
Central London potentially has greater influence on government policy than the entire North of England, research has revealed.
A New Local Government Network analysis of the primary residence of 1,000 quango board members uncovered a distinct Southeastern bias among board members.
In particularly, the inner London boroughs of Camden, Westminster, Islington and Kensington & Chelsea account for 15% of English quango membership.
People living in affluent counties such as Gloucestershire, Surrey and Oxfordshire were also over-represented among quangos, while cities such as Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham were under-represented.
More than 20 areas recorded no quango representation at all, including Blackpool, Darlington, Wigan and Wolverhampton.
Quangos collectively spend £123bn a year – 21% of public spending – and have considerable influence over the formulation and implementation of policy. The NLGN argued that 'national diversity' should be taken into account when recruiting people to manage and run quangos.
NLGN director Chris Leslie said: 'There are clear concentrations of power, postcodes which are clearly more likely to produce the “great and good” for seats on quango boards. We suspect that the poorer the area you live in, the less likely you are to climb to the heights of quango board membership.'
The February 14 report revealed that the National Portrait Gallery was the worst offender, with 93% of its board members living in London.
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