<font color="#FF0000">REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY

There is now, thankfully, an end in sight to the wasteful South West Regional Development Agency. I have always regarded the RDAs as quangos of very suspect benefit. They seem to require huge teams of overpaid staff and then syphon off cash to pay for them that would have been far better distributed elsewhere.

I have watched the growth of the South West RDA with undisguised alarm. I celebrate its imminent demise.

SWRDA is responsible for investing public money in some very strange schemes. Take the Wave Hub. This will cost 42 million of public money (some from Europe, but £12.5millions from SWRDA). The scheme could generate enough power to serve 7500 homes. I did my sums. That's £5,600 per home - a wee bit steep, given that most people spend around £600 a year to power their homes.

Instead of the top-heavy RDA the Government intends to create Local Enterprise Partnerships. This will take time and there will have to be a detailed plan (a White Paper) followed by a new law. In the interim SWRDA is offering to "help with the transition". Be extremely wary of that.

In fact, I often wonder if a more effective way of distributing public money would be to take a sack of fivers up in a light plane and drop them at random. Probably just as many grants would end up in the right hands - maybe more. And it would cost an awful lot less.

Your Local MP

Big Issues

Other sites of interest

About this web site

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY - RIP

Related Links