THE heads of powerful quangos will be grilled by MPs from across the North-West on a regular basis, after a report warns today of a dangerous "accountability gap".

The study calls for a regional select committee to be set up in the North-West and other regions to ensure agencies spending hundreds of millions pounds a year can finally be held to account.

Most concern centres on the lack of scrutiny of the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), including the North West Development Agency, which have growing powers over economic development, housing, planning and the environment.

But the idea is that other organisations, including Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), the Highways Agency, plus arts and sports councils, would also be investigated.

Most select committee meetings would be held in the relevant region, rather than at Westminster, to allow members of the public to attend.

The long-awaited report by the Commons modernisation committee also recommends that MPs should quiz the "regional ministers" on their activities, in parliament, to make them properly accountable.

It is a full year since Gordon Brown promised regional select committees and "regions question time" to give the likes of Merseyside a stronger voice, but progress has been painfully slow.

Beverley Hughes, the Stretford MP and children’s minister, was appointed Minister for the North-West, but her profile has been subterranean.

There were accusations that the civil service was attempting to water down the proposals, because it saw them as a threat – or that the government was going cold because of the cost.

But today’s report means the new set-up will finally get under way in the autumn – albeit on a trial basis – provided it is approved by the whole Commons.

It puts the bill at £1.4m – described as a "tiny proportion" of the amount spent by the regional quangos. The RDAs alone have a collective budget of £2.3bn.

Each 10-strong committee must have five Labour MPs and three Conservatives – which, in the North-West, would avoid a Merseyside- Greater Manchester bias.

But there is no mention of the regional committees vetting crucial appointments, such as the heads of the RDAs and SHAs – a power suggested by some MPs.

A bid by George Howarth, the Knowsley North and Sefton East MP, for select committees for each of the big cities – on the basis that "no- one identifies as a North- Westerner" – was rejected.

The report concluded: "We have identified a clear account-ability gap at regional level. Select committees have proved themselves a good model for conducting effective scrutiny."