Job cuts: Development agency staff quit ahead of abolition axe falling

The revelation comes as the Government prepares to pump 1.4bn into winding up the nine regional development agencies over the next four years, paying for some projects long after the organisations close in 2012.

The Department of Communities and Local Government will spend 923m over the next four years as the agencies are closed and liabilities are met, and the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) will give another 435m.

The closure of the RDAs means overall spending by BIS on economic development will fall from 417m next year to 232m in 2014/15.

Labour claimed the high cost of closing down the agencies – which

are being ditched by the coalition in favour of new Local Enterprise Partnerships – showed the policy was in "chaos", although the Government insisted the money is not being wasted because it is being spent on seeing economic development projects through to their completion.

Yorkshire Forward revealed that 93 staff left the agency last Friday of last week under a voluntary redundancy agreement overseen by the Cabinet Office.

A spokesman for Yorkshire Forward said: "These are very difficult times and our focus is both on ensuring our staff are supported and that we can continue to safely deliver what is still a multi-million-pound programme of work throughout 2010-11 and an orderly transition, until our closure date of March 2012."

A spokesman for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills said: "There are some real costs involved in closing the RDAs, including redundancies."