Tories' reform pledge on regional agencies

THE Tories have moved to end confusion over their plans for the future of regional development agencies including Yorkshire Forward by insisting they will be “reformed” but not “scrapped”.

After months of mixed messages, two members of the Shadow Cabinet have sent a joint letter to Tory MPs explaining their proposals to make the agencies – set up just over a decade ago to boost ailing regional economies – more accountable and effective.

In the letter, seen by the Yorkshire Post, Shadow Business Secretary Ken Clarke and Shadow Local Government Secretary Caroline Spelman said they would be stripped of powers over housing and planning and turned into “focused, effective” economic partnerships involving local councillors and businesses.

Council and business leaders will decide whether the new partnership – focused on regeneration and economic development – should cover the entire region, as senior Tories expect to happen in Yorkshire, or whether several partnerships are established to cover smaller economies, as is expected to happen in some other regions.

The united front is an attempt to draw a line under confusion over the Tories’ policy on regional development agencies which has rumbled on for months, Shadow Cabinet Ministers having repeatedly given mixed messages.

The lack of clarity has infuriated senior Yorkshire Forward officials and left the Tories vulnerable to Labour attacks that their policies would badly hit the northern regions.

In the letter, Mr Clarke and Ms Spelman say: “The Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) are the remains of John Prescott’s failed experiment of regional government. Since they were formed in 1999 they have spent 17bn, yet the gap between the greater south-east and the rest of the English regions has widened.

“So, while we recognise the RDAs have had some local successes, we believe that the current arrangements can be improved. The Government has tacitly admitted this by deciding to cut RDA budgets by 300m last year.”

They say they will allow local councils “to replace the existing agency with a new partnership between themselves and local business, to focus on things like regeneration and jobs”.

The boundaries of the partnerships will reflect “natural economic areas”, although it will be down to councillors to decide whether than means a region or a smaller area, and business has been promised a “strong voice” making up “at least” 50 per cent of Board membership.

“We are drawing up detailed plans which will ensure that the transition to local enterprise partnerships will be smooth, allowing for the appropriate fulfilment of ongoing projects, grants and contracts, including projects which also draw on European Union Structural Funds,” they add.

Labour has increasingly backed the RDAs during the recession – while cutting their funding – and has used them as a vehicle to attack the Tories.

Seizing on rhetoric by some Shadow Ministers that the agencies would be abolished, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has repeatedly accused Tory leader David Cameron of delivering a “kick in the teeth” to the region.