Tories plan to axe RDAs

Jul 2 2008 by Rob Merrick, Liverpool Daily Post

A NETWORK of overseas offices to encourage foreign firms to cre-ate jobs in the region will be cut if the Conservatives win power.

The Tories have revealed sur-prise plans to force regional devel-opment agencies (RDAs) to axe “baffling” bases abroad, which cost the taxpayer £20m a year.

The move will be a big blow to the Northwest Regional Develop-ment Agency (NWDA), which runs offices in Australia, Japan and the United States at a cost of £372,000 last year.

All seven other RDAs promote their regions in the same way, with Advantage West Midlands boasting bureaux in no fewer than eight countries. But, in a major speech on the future for RDAs, Conservative business spokesman Alan Duncan said it made no sense for the regions to compete by setting up rival bases.

And he warned the offices also undermined the work of a nation-al body, called UK Trade and In-vestment, which also tries to pro-mote British industry overseas.

Mr Duncan said: “Nowhere is this adverse competitiveness bet-ter visible than in one of the great absurdities of Labour’s quango-cracy – the overseas bureaux.

“The South East England Devel-opment Agency has an office in Korea. Advantage West Midlands employs staff in Belgium. One North East spreads all over North America, from Atlanta to Chicago and from Boston to Los Angeles.

“Instead of attracting inward investment, this process of rival bidding only exports regional competition. It must be baffling to the Chinese or the Koreans. It must be equally baffling to the taxpayer, who has had to fork out over £20m on these vanity offices since 2002.”

Mr Duncan promised a “re-think” of whether regional bodies were needed at all, although he also suggested the North-West or North-East might make the case for stronger powers.

He warned that the RDAs were becoming “increasingly politicised” and were evolving into an executive arm of government, instead of being “a business-led force for good”.

Lacking “legitimacy and accountability”, they should be stripped of their planning powers, which should probably be given back to government.

Mr Duncan said: “They have come to be much more of a blancmange. We are very suspicious of what the Government wants them to become.”

The Commons business and enterprise select committee yesterday announced an inquiry into the “future role and responsibilities for regional development agencies.