Consultation ‘farce’ over quango set for the axe

THE abolition of regional development agency Yorkshire Forward descended into “farce” last night as it emerged the Government will carry out a consultation into the move even though it is already being wound down.
By The Newsroom
Published 23rd May 2011, 10:08 BST

The move to consult over the axing of all nine of England’s regional development agencies was branded a “waste of everyone’s time” as the Government has already decided to axe them.

But under legislation going through Parliament, Ministers will be forced to carry out a consultation before they can bring down the axe. As well as raising questions over how much the consultation will cost, the move will fuel claims that many official consultations are little more than a sham.

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Shadow Business Secretary John Denham said: “The Tory-led Government have made their decision to scrap the RDAs abundantly clear and drastically reduced the amount of money available for regional growth by two thirds. Having a consultation on a bad decision already made is a farce and a waste of everyone’s time.”

The Government announced the abolition of the regional development agencies (RDAs) – including Yorkshire Forward – on June 22 last year, and the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills says it “expects the RDAs will cease operations by March 2012”.

Dozens of staff at Yorkshire Forward, which had a budget of £300m a year under Labour to boost the region’s economy, have already taken redundancy at a cost to the organisation of more than £3m.

In its place, three Local Enterprise Partnerships are up and running – covering Leeds City Region, Sheffield City Region, and York and North Yorkshire – which are tasked with creating private sectors jobs to revive the economy and which the Government believes can be more effective than RDAs, which Ministers call wasteful and bureaucratic.

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But the RDAs can only be officially abolished when the Public Bodies Bill, being debated in Parliament, becomes law. The Bill requires consultation before Orders allowing closure can be laid.

Lord Taylor of Holbeach, the Government’s spokesman for the Cabinet Office in the House of Lords, has told Labour’s leader of the Lords Baroness Royall of Blaisdon “The Government is of course obliged to consult before laying any Order to abolish the RDAs.”

The closure of RDAs is already well advanced, raising a question over the point of the consultation.

Comment: Page 10.

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