19th July 2007

'Brown shows his preference for central control'
By Alan Duncan MP Shadow Minister for Tyneside
The Newcastle Journal Ltd 19 July 2007

THIS week the Government announced that they were going to scrap regional assemblies.
It was the North-East who struck the killer blow to regional assemblies by voting against John Prescott's plan for regional government, so you would have thought that the announcement would be good news for the region and local democracy, but rather than listening to the reasons for the North-East's rejection of regional government, the Government have ridden roughshod over local concerns.       

They have simply rebranded their plans to impose regional government on the region.
Rather than listening to the fact that voters rejected regional assemblies because they realised that an expensive extra layer of regional politicians would be distant from the concerns of local communities, the Government have ignored these concerns and devised a new system of regional government which is even less democratic and more distant from local communities than John Prescott's failed scheme.

Most of the most important powers held by the North-East Regional Assembly are going to be transferred to One NorthEast, the development agency. RDAs' record on ensuring that taxpayer money is spent effectively is woeful. RDAs' boards are appointed and are not accountable to local communities. Their original role was to act as a business-focused catalyst for regeneration, but Labour have now made them an arm of Government without allowing local people a say over what they do.

The proposal to give Government ministers additional responsibilities over RDAs represents a massive shift of powers from local communities to Whitehall. The abandonment of regional assemblies gave the Government a great opportunity to return power to local communities in the North-East, but they have flunked it.