Jan 2009 14

Will the RDA's go the way of the Dodo?4

Stewart Jackson MP, Conservative Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government, has an interesting piece over on ConservativeHome today. The article provides an excellent run-down and critique of the current proposals for yet more transfer of powers to regional quangos , including the establishment of "unelected economic and transport quangos" which will be "empowered to impose "local charging schemes", in the form of congestion taxes, road pricing and workplace parking taxes."

He also makes the astute observation, previously described on the blog in various cases, that the GOvernment:

have no wish to learn the lessons of the emphatic "no" vote in the North East regional referendum in 2004 and the more recent overwhelming rejection of congestion charging in Greater Manchester before Christmas.

Instead, the underlying message is "if the system doesn't deliver our policies at local level as a result of the voters' decisions – let's keep changing the system till it does!" In short, an arrogant disregard for the autonomy and legitimacy of local democracy and decision making.

It is encouraging in itself to hear the Opposition making these criticisms, as it at least heavily implies they would do things differently. Hopefully we will soon start to find out some concrete measures that they will put in place were they to form a Government to start delivering real power back to the people. Jackson does dangle one, tantalising hint before the end of his article:

Labour's Stalinist quango state of unelected party elites is not the way to achieve these aims.

In contrast, we'll scrap the whole tier of regional planning.

Is that a pledge to scrap the Regional Development Agencies? I certainly hope that it is and that it will be made clearer and more solid in the near future.

As our research in August and then December last year showed, the RDAs are wasteful, self-congratulatory bodies that produce very little other than jobs for themselves and a good deal of hot air. The media and public reaction to our reports demonstrates that there is a strong public appetite for abolishing them entirely and giving their powers to local, democratically elected representatives – real localism, rather than sham regionalism.

If you liked what you read here, you can join the campaign against RDAs and other wasteful quangos by joining the TaxPayers' Alliance for free here.

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  • David Phipps

    Mark,
    Apologies in advance for ‘banging on about Europe’ (to quote Mr. Cameron) but the introduction of these MAAs is, if you look further, being done in accordance with the EU regionalisation NUTS plan, All the MAAs being created at the moment are in accordance with ‘areas’ that conform to Level 2 of this NUTS scheme.
    Refer to the post on WitteringsfromWitney http://witteringsfromwitney.blogspot.com/2009/01/local-democracy-economic-development.html and all becomes clear.
    It is a great pity that the Conservatives cannot bring themselves to acknowledge this – mind you for a supposedly Eurosceptic party that wishes to remain a member of this odious body, what else can you expect.
    The statement about the ‘underlying message’ is pure hogwash – local democracy in this country is ‘dead’ and will remain so until local electorates really do run their locale.
    As WitteringsfromWitney says on another post http://witteringsfromwitney.blogspot.com/2009/01/hidden-agenda.html if the basic right of the people of this country to decide their own laws, their own way of living is taken away from them, which it is presently, then we are living not in a democracy, but in a new form of government, namely a dictatorship with a democratic facade.

  • http://benefitfraud.blogspot.com John Page

    Abolishing these bodies would be desirable even if they were free.
    Obviously they cost money. So when a Tory proposes their abolition, let him take a stab at how much taxpayers’ money would be saved.
    It’s probably asking a bit much for a shadow spokesman to propose how it might be used, or even make comparisons, but nothing stops the TPA repeating such numbers….

  • Mark Wallace

    Thank you for your comments.
    David: You are absolutely right to “bang on about Europe” on this one – the regionalisation agenda is undoubtedly tied up with the EU’s administrative programme.
    John: From our figures the RDAs cost £2.3 billion a year and have produced little to no measurable economic benefits – indeed some regions hve got worse since they were founded. That money could, for example, pay for a 4p reduction in the Small Business rate of Corporation Tax. I’ll be writing to Stewart Jackson to encourage him to make this a solid pledge.

  • Peter Phillips

    Mark Wallace says:
    ” … I’ll be writing to Stewart Jackson (Conservative Shadow minister) to encourage him to make this (abolition of the RDAs) a solid pledge”.
    As long as the Conservatives remain wedded to the EU, which they clearly are, they will not be able to abolish them. If they did, they would only have to replace them with something similar in order to comply with EU regional policy.
    Mark would be better off supporting the BNP because we have long opposed both these wasteful, useless quangos, AND promise to leave the EU.