Regeneration spending cuts to have ‘dire’ impact
Author: Local Goverment Chronicle |
Cuts to regeneration spending will have “dire” consequences on deprived areas and could prove a false economy by threatening the pace of overall economic recovery, the organisation for UK economic development practioners has warned.
Launching a five-point “manifesto for growth” ahead of the final party leaders’ TV debate on the subject of the economy, the Institute of Economic Development said with only anaemic growth returning to the UK economy, regeneration and economic development professionals at local authorties were “needed now more than ever”.
It said: “The need for cutbacks in public spending is understood, but becomes a false economy where this threatens to slow the pace of recovery”.
The IED said that cuts to core regeneration programmes, such as the Working Neighbourhoods Fund – a programme focused on tackling workesslessness and boosting enterprise and skills in deprived communities – would have “dire consequences for local areas that benefit last during periods of economic recovery and suffer first during periods of economic decline”.
It added: “Without continued investment in these neighbourhoods, the progress they have made over recent years will slide into reverse”.
The IED said the Government’s introduction of a statutory duty on upper tier local authorites to produce in depth assessments of their local economy and identify strengths and weaknesses was welcome, but resources must be made available to address the “threats and opportunities highlighted through this prcoess”.
The IED called for funds that have been reallocated from economic development programmes such as the Local Authority Business Growth Incentives, the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative and regional development agency budgets, to be reinstated to help councils bolster the economic recovery in their communities.
Neil Robertson IED chair said: “If you don’t invest in economic development, getting this country out of recession will take twice as long. As schemes are cancelled and economic development budgets are slashed. It makes me angry that the same leaders and politicians who only recently ranked economic development as a priority behave so short-sightedly”.
The IED’s warning follows that of the British Urban Regeneration Association, which said that for the first time in 30 years all three main parties were going into an election with a regeneration policy “vacuum” in their manifestos. Only the Labour Party mentioned regeneration in its manifesto, Bura said, and that was to identify it as a low priority area where spending cuts would be made.
Yesterday East Riding Council said it had been forced to reduce the size of its regeneration team due to funding constraints.