29 June 2010
The government is pressing ahead with its pledge to radically cull the number of quangos, with regional development agencies among the latest in the line of fire.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg
today set out plans to replace RDAs with ‘local enterprise partnerships’, made
up of councillors and businesses. The new bodies will oversee planning and
housing, local transport and infrastructure, employment, enterprise and
supporting business start-ups.
Other roles currently carried out by RDAs, such as local business support and innovation, will be controlled centrally.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said the new bodies would play a vital role in ‘rebalancing the economy towards the private sector’. LEPs would ‘take on the task of renewing local economies and tackling local barriers to growth’, the Liberal Democrat MP said.
Clegg also announced a £1bn fund to support private sector growth in regions heavily dependent on public sector jobs and likely to suffer most from the government’s spending cuts.
‘While we sort out the nations’ finances, we can also help to foster a thriving and more balanced economy so that no region or community gets left behind,’ he said.
A white paper will be published later in the summer with further details on the LEPs and the regional growth fund.
The Labour Party, which established RDAs in 1998, condemned the government’s decision to scrap them. ‘RDAs have done a good job for regional economies. They have been independently evaluated and shown to lever in on average £4.50 of benefit for regional economies for every £1 spent,’ said shadow business secretary Pat McFadden.
Katie Schmuecker, senior research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research North, welcomed the new fund but warned that any bidding process must ensure money is targeted at the areas that need it most.
It was also announced today that the Commission for Rural Communities, the agency set up to boost economic growth in the countryside, and the new Infrastructure Planning Commission, the quango that approves applications for major infrastructure projects, will be abolished.
