Regional Development Agencies are a Waste of Money

In 1973 the Kilbrandon Commission concluded that "there is no public demand for English regional assemblies with legislative powers, whether under a federal system or otherwise". To their cost, and our financial cost, Labour discovered this to still be the case in 2004 when they held a referendum to discover that 78% of the population were opposed to their crackpot ideas. So they pressed ahead with 'indirectly elected' assemblies - which nobody wanted either - until this year when they finally abolished the assemblies altogether in favour of 'regional ministers', which nobody wanted or asked for either.

And all this undemocratic repositioning to provide democratic accountability for the work of Regional Development Agencies, which the Taxpayers' Alliance has now revealed to be yet another complete waste of our money, £15 BILLION to be precise:

Daily Mail: The report said 39 RDA executives earn more than £100,000 a year and they have sent staff to pointless conferences, including a film festival in Dubai.

One agency boss spent nearly £54,000 in a year on taxis and cars.

The TaxPayers' Alliance called for the nine RDAs to be abolished and their funding to be used to encourage new businesses and jobs through a 4p cut in the small business rate of corporation tax.

RDAs were set up by former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in 1999 as part of his drive to create regional assemblies in England.

While Mr Prescott's hopes of elected regional governments foundered because of public hostility, the nine agencies have remained.

Do read the Taxpayers' Alliance report: Regional Development Agencies: £15 billion thrown away.