30th June 2008

Speech to policy exchange on RDAs

Alan gave a speech to Policy Exchange on Monday (30th June) which set out Conservative thinking on Regional Development Agencies.

He said that RDAs have become "a blancmange" under Labour and must be refocused towards helping business, boosting regeneration and developing skills.He pledged that a Tory administration would restructure the agencies to prevent them becoming an executive arm of government.

The unelected bodies are "ingraining a tier of regional government with no mandate, no legitimacy and no accountability", he argued.

Alan said that RDAs have become "increasingly politicised" and that the government's plan to give them strategic planning powers is "a huge mistake".

"They have come to be much more of a blancmange," he said. "We are very suspicious of what the government wants them to become." He added that regional policy must also be allowed to differ.

"The whole point of regional policy is that it respects and understands regional differences," he said. "If the structures of regional policy are all the same, its central logic collapses."

And he pledged that the Conservatives would also stop RDAs setting up offices overseas.

Read Alan’s speech in full here.