Business fears loss of RDAs
Author: Financial Times |
Conservative plans to strip England’s regional development agencies of powers have prompted a backlash from business groups, which warn that a gap in regional development must not be allowed to develop if the party wins the forthcoming general election.
Under the slogan of “giving power back to local people”, the Tories plan to dismantle England’s entire regional tier of government and offer councils the chance to form local enterprise partnerships which would take over RDAs’ economic development responsibilities and funding.
England’s RDAs are, the Tories say, centrally im-posed and an example of an artificial regional government architecture created by Labour, serving only to add bureaucracy and complicate local government. But the CBI employers’ body, the British Chambers of Commerce and the EEF manufacturers’ group all warn strategic decisions on economic development need be taken at a higher level than local councils.
“There’s a need for something to exist between Whitehall and central government and the level of the local authority,” says Adam Marshall, the British Chambers of Commerce’s director of policy.
“Localism is something many people believe in but there’s a danger in going so local that you can’t take care of the strategic infrastructure which business thinks is so important.”