NATIONAL > Still not dead, RDAs breathe on but breathe thinner air
Published: Wednesday, 21 Jul, 2010
AA few weeks ago, I suggested that the tumbrils were not yet rolling down the streets for regional development agencies, RDAs; then, a couple of weeks later I found myself half apologising, having been informed that staff in those organisations were informing next of kin and preparing to imminently join that bonfire of the quangos around which the coalition government \\\\r\\\\nhopes we will be able to warm ourselves, in the promised bitter winter of austerity. Now
A few weeks ago, I suggested that the tumbrils were not yet rolling down the streets for regional development agencies, RDAs; then, a couple of weeks later I found myself half apologising, having been informed that staff in those organisations were informing next of kin and preparing to imminently join that bonfire of the quangos around which the coalition government hopes we will be able to warm ourselves, in the promised bitter winter of austerity. Now, I find myself thinking again as the evidence of immediate RDA death seems, for now, more in the telling than in the reality. In short there seems to have been a lot of confusion around the attitude of this government towards inward investment but there really should be no such doubt. Most of the doom laden, 'sky is falling in' comment seems to be swirling around the future of the Regional Development Agencies in England which, with devolved government agencies in the other UK nations, have, for more than a decade, led UK efforts to encourage inward investment and undertake regeneration, doing, by and large, a very good job. Panic, or the appearance of panic, seems to be the order of the day with people determining to do nothing until the government has decided on the colour of notepaper it will use for efforts to encourage inward investment and undertake regeneration. Does that sound facetious? Well, consider the facts (an approach that may have fallen out of fashion in recent times).
People involved in inward investment seem to be saying that they do not know what the coalition government thinks about inward investment, in which case they probably haven't read the address that Prime Minister David Cameron delivered to the UK Trade & Investment Business Summit on Wednesday 14 July 2010. Speaking to an audience of more than 100 of the UK’s leading investors, including representatives from Hutchison Whampoa, Motorola, Tata Group, GE, Toyota, Siemens, Emirates, Fujitsi and Pfizer, he opened with; "I think that what you are discussing today is probably the most important subject facing this country. We are coming out of a very deep and difficult recession, growth is fragile, and it is absolutely vital for our economy that we attract the maximum amount of inward investment ..." If that's equivocation then, contrary to popular belief, black may well turn out to be white. The speech also included these lines; "It’s not just that we know we need to attract your investment; it’s that we want to attract your investment. And in that [2010 emergency] budget, while we had to make some difficult cuts, we also made an incredibly important cut too, and that is a cut in the rate of corporation tax... so that we end up [in 2014] with a 24% corporation tax, which will be amongst the lowest in the developed world."
Call me old fashioned but opening the shop door, cutting prices and putting up the welcome sign is often an indication that you want people to come in. So I cannot see any doubt about the government's strategic intentions. 'Ah yes,' say the doubters, 'but what is going to happen to the regional development agencies (RDAs) and who will do their work. My second exhibit, m'lord' is the letter sent from both Vince Cable, the Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills, and Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to business and local authority leaders on June 29th, inviting proposals on establishing local enterprise partnerships. In that letter Messrs Cable and Pickles explain that they want thoughts how the transition from RDAs to LEPs (local enterprise partnerships) can be achieved and that while some of the RDAs' current inward investment role will be fulfilled at a national level (by the UKTI, it seems) other local economic development related work will devolve to LEPs. 'Ah,' chant the sceptics, 'but when is all this going to happen?'
I asked the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) where a spokesman confirmed that, "Legislation to abolish RDAs was announced in the Queen’s speech and is expected to be introduced to Parliament in the autumn. We have asked for initial proposals for local enterprise partnerships by 6 September. We want to see partnerships in place as soon as is practical, replacing RDAs no later than April 2012." So, not tomorrow then; in fact not this year or most of next and not so much consigned to oblivion as replaced with arrangements that more or less cover the same tasks but in different places, except, hopefully, not the excessive taxi fares incurred by at least one RDA chief.
I, for one, do not think that the RDAs should be abolished but I can see how reform in the public sector is always a bit like nailing jelly to a wall and I can understand how a government with lots to do and little time in which to do it might prefer the more certain course of closure and redistribution of the work of which they approve while the work that they regard as unnecessary can be consigned to history. In short, just because things are going to be done differently, that should not translate as, 'they're not going to be done at all'. Those who wish to, can await the outcome of more than eighteen months of change process. Others may choose to continue doing their part for inward investment in order to 'be there' when the new order is finally in place.
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