Regional Development Agencies
3rd June 2010
Highlighting wasteful spending by Regional Development Agencies in the past, Margot James calls on the Secretary of State for Business to ensure resources are focussed on businesses and local authorities directly.
Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con): I congratulate my right hon. Friend and his team on their new positions. Is he aware of the Richard report commissioned by the Conservative party in opposition? It found that a third of RDA money was spent on administration and that much of the rest was spent on signposting to other sources of information. I beseech him to ensure that in the new policy businesses and locally elected authorities can get together to avail themselves far more directly of all that taxpayer money.
Vince Cable: Yes, I am aware of that report. There was a happy coincidence of thinking between my colleague's party and my own on the future of RDAs. She is quite right to say that there was a lot of administrative waste, some of which we are now removing as a result of the changes that have been made in the last week. There will be parts of the country-including, I think, the part that she represents-where we will have a substantial cutback in RDAs. However, they will be refocused and made more effective.
