Joint memorandum submitted by the England's
Regional Development Agencies (V20)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. Regional Development Agencies (RDAs)
believe that the Rural Strategy 2004 and the principles which
underpin it have the potential to be a critical advance in achieving
a vision for rural England that maximises rural communities' potential
on a genuinely sustainable basis. This evidence to the EFRA Select
Committee Inquiry into the Government's Rural Strategy 2004 has
been produced collectively by all the RDAs.
2. The RDAs believe that the Secretary of
State has implemented all the appropriate recommendations from
the Haskins Review of Rural Delivery Arrangements and are particularly
welcoming of the devolution of delivery detailed in the Rural
Strategy 2004. RDAs welcome the new responsibilities they have
been assigned and, whilst recognising that there are a number
of challenges to overcome (especially in relation to the funding
formula and the lower than originally envisaged level of funds
which will be transferred), they believe that the Rural Strategy
will bring delivery closer to the ground enabling rural development
to better meet the needs of rural customers.
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
AGENCIES
3. RDAs, established in 1999, have a common
mission to transform England's regions through sustainable economic
development. They play a central role in developing regional strategic
interventions which respond to customers' needs and which are
delivered at the most appropriate level. They lead the creation
of Regional Economic Strategies, developed through extensive stakeholder
consultation and, jointly with Government Offices they lead the
development of regional implementation plans for the Strategy
for Sustainable Farming & Food (SSFF), developed through consultation
with farmers, their representatives and associated industries.
They also work with other key regional players to develop suites
of integrated regional strategies such as the Regional Sustainable
Development Frameworks, Regional Housing Strategies, Regional
Social Strategies etc. They have the increasing confidence of
government as regional delivery agents for Public Service Agreement
(PSA) priorities and it is against these PSAs that RDAs are held
accountable.
4. The leadership role played by RDAs in
relation to the rural economy combines mainstream activity (on
business support, learning and skills, clusters, manufacturing
etc) with specialist, tailored activity targeted at rural communities
and businesses. RDAs leadership and co-ordination role within
the regions was ably demonstrated during the foot and mouth disease
crisis in 2001 when they swiftly implemented actions to mitigate
the difficulties being faced by farmers and the wider rural economy.
The cumulative contribution of RDA mainstream and rural-specific
investment (eg in market towns, provision of workspace, broadband,
small-scale community-led projects etc.) is supporting communities
to create a sustainable future. They have developed and delivered
a range of "rural" initiatives, underpinned by a sustainable
development ethos and often with the community in the driving
seat, all of which have contributed to making rural areas places
where people want to, and can, work and invest, live and visit.
RDAs deliver substantial funding to rural areas through their
networks of regional, sub-regional and local delivery arrangements,
many of which are multi-agency involving the public, private,
voluntary and community sector. Small central teams oversee the
delivery process ensuring that efficient and cost-effective delivery
is achieved within a framework that allows for regional and local
identification of rural needs.
THE RDA VISION
FOR RURAL
DELIVERY
5. The Regional Development Agencies collectively
have a clear vision of rural delivery in the future, which underpinned
the response to Lord Haskins Review of Rural Delivery Arrangements
and which is driving RDAs' implementation of the Rural Strategy.
By 2007, the RDAs' vision is that rural delivery will have the
following characteristics:
— Customer focused: the customers
will welcome the improvements in service delivery and will feel
able to access services.
— Locally delivered: delivery
will be at the closest possible level to customers.
— Integrated support: delivery
will provide better integration of support, reduced duplication
and single points of contact/entry where this meets local need.
— Supporting sustainable development:
all key players will contribute to the Government's sustainable
development strategy.
— Strategy-led and regionally tailored:
well defined and executed regional strategic approach to defining
policy, priorities, programmes and projects.
— Regional leadership and co-ordinated
funding through the RDAs: All central Government funds will
be directed to the RDAs for distribution within an agreed regional
strategic approach.
— Simplifying access to funding.
— Transparent decisions: each
region will have simple, streamlined and transparent processes
for accessing those funds. European Commission schemes will wherever
possible be integrated into these arrangements.
— Greater value for money: better
efficiency and effectiveness will be delivered for agreed outcomes
and outputs.
— Clear accountability: there
will be a single and succinct framework of accountability, performance
management and scrutiny for RDAs.
DELIVERING THE
RURAL STRATEGY
6. The Rural Strategy 2004 assigns a greater
role to Regional Development Agencies who are now working together
nationally to ensure that regional implementation is underpinned
by national consistency. The Rural Strategy devolves delivery
of additional socio-economic funding to RDAs and assigns them
a stronger regional leadership and co-ordination role in relation
to the England Rural Development Programme's (ERDP) Project-Based
Schemes prior to taking control of these schemes (or their equivalents)
from 1 January 2007. The need for greater connection between the
ERDP's project-based schemes and the Regional Economic Strategies
was acknowledged in the recent Mid-Term Evaluation of the ERDP
and RDAs welcome the fact that the Secretary of State addressed
this recommendation through the Rural Strategy. RDAs are pleased
to have the opportunity to participate in Regional Appraisal Panels
and to lead the development of the Regional Targeting Statements
from 2005 as this will allow greater connection with other regional
strategies and more complementary use of the funds. They are also
pleased to receive additional funding for socio-economic activity.
National implementation
7. It is recognised that effective implementation
requires engagement with Defra and other partners at the national
level, as well as a common framework for implementation across
the RDAs. The RDAs have established a cross-RDA Modernising Rural
Delivery (MRD) Board, which meets monthly, to oversee and take
responsibility for the establishment of a national RDA framework
for MRD implementation. The RDAs have also appointed a National
MRD Co-ordinator who will work closely with the regional MRD Implementation
Managers in each RDA. These two measures, combined with regular
discussions at the six-weekly Chair and Chief Executives' Forums,
will ensure that a shared national approach is developed which
will allow the regional outcomes to reflect regional variations
and the needs of the customers within those regions.
Regional implementation
8. Regional Development Agencies welcome
the Secretary of State's emphasis on devolution and the recognition
that delivery needs to be tailored to respond to each region's
priorities. RDAs are working in partnership with Government Offices
and others on the Regional Rural Delivery Frameworks which will
determine regional rural priorities. They are also involved, in
some regions, in the Pathfinders which are designed to test delivery
mechanisms. The results of these exercises may inform the development
of delivery mechanisms which will place delivery at the closest
possible level to the customer, although, as detailed below, there
is a mismatch between timeframes. RDAs' accountability will be
assured through their Tasking Framework which contains Public
Service Agreement (PSA) targets from a range of government departments
including Defra and against which RDAs are expected to report,
both in terms of outputs, outcomes and strategic added value.
The Government Offices play a key role in reviewing and commenting
on the performance of RDAs to central government on a quarterly
basis and the Regional Assemblies (which consist of local authority
and voluntary and community sector representatives amongst others)
play an important scrutiny role ensuring accountability to the
regional level.
Delivery challenges
9. The delayed announcement of the Government's
Rural Strategy has created some challenges for implementing organisations
which need to be recognised:
(a) The timeframe for development of fully
operational delivery mechanisms and resource transfer by April
2005 is now very tight for effective implementation.
(b) RDAs are actively supporting and engaged
in the development of Regional Rural Delivery Frameworks (RRDFs)
which will determine regional rural priorities and inform the
development of delivery structures. This work is due to complete
in December 2004 by which time RDAs will have had to submit their
Corporate Plans to DTI outlining their intended activities for
2005-06. RDAs are building flexibility in to their Corporate Plans
to enable them to respond to the results, nevertheless integrating
the findings in to new delivery structures between December 2004
and April 2005 is a challenging timetable.
(c) RDAs are involved, in some regions, in
the Pathfinders which are being established to test delivery mechanisms.
Whilst fully supportive of the need to develop better integrated,
flexible approaches to delivery of mainstream and rural funds
at the local level, there are some reservations about the Pathfinders.
The results of the Pathfinders, which commence practically in
April 2005, will not be available until after RDAs have commenced
implementation of the additional socio-economic funding (a role
which will start in April 2005) and after partners are delivering
on the new RRDFs. Whilst the desktop exercise which is underway
currently will inform the development of delivery mechanisms,
the findings of the Pathfinders will not be available until after
delivery has commenced. There is also a concern that Pathfinders
might duplicate work and structures and misdirect limited resource
rather than adding value.
(d) The role of the Government Offices, who
have been assigned new delivery responsibilities, is not yet clear
and RDAs are having to plan without knowing the corresponding
roles of the Government Offices, particularly in relation to the
social regeneration and social justice agendas.
(e) The additional socio-economic funding
RDAs have been allocated was previously disbursed by the Countryside
Agency. RDAs had originally envisaged the additional allocation
from Defra for socio-economic activity being in the region of
£45 million based on the previous expenditure of the Countryside
Agency. The decision to allocate only £21 million will impact
directly on RDAs' ability to deliver additional outcomes. RDAs
are working with the Countryside Agency and Defra on this transfer
of funds but a number of challenges remain. For business planning
purposes, RDAs need to know the extent of the legacy commitments
which will transfer from the Countryside Agency, and be allocated
sufficient funds to meet them. Discussions on the funding formula
and the Countryside Agency's legacy programmes are still underway.
In terms of staff transfer issues, the Countryside Agency, RDAs
and Defra have now agreed a communications protocol to ensure
that consistent messages are delivered to staff about their future
opportunities and work is underway to determine the level of resourcing
to be transferred.
10. There are also three main challenges
in relation to the Rural Development Regulation (RDR) which will
need to be tackled between now and 2007:
(a) Defra needs to negotiate the terms of
the RDR so that it provides the UK with the flexibility to integrate
the socio-economic elements of the new European Rural Development
Regulation with the socio-economic funding delivered by RDAs.
Through participation on Defra's RDR Programme Board, RDAs will
be engaging with the negotiations from the outset and working
with Defra to secure as much flexibility as possible.
(b) The Secretary of State announced that
RDAs would "have control" over the economic schemes
within the new European Rural Development Regulation when it comes
in to force. It will be important to secure an early view on what
is meant by "have control" after thorough consideration
of all the options so work can commence on putting appropriate
delivery structures in place.
(c) IT will be an important factor when RDAs
assume greater control of the socio-economic elements of the new
Rural Development Regulation from 2007. At present the Rural Development
Service (RDS) runs a system called Genesis which has been designed
to record and manage the agri-environment funds within the ERDP,
although it is also used for the project-based schemes. It will
be critical that the RDS and Defra work with the RDAs to identify
the recording needs in relation to the project-based schemes and
the potential fit with the existing project management software
that RDAs run. There are obvious benefits to running one system
rather than two. This work is likely to prove time-consuming and
costly and it is to be hoped that Defra will provide the necessary
resources to allow this work to commence immediately.
FIT WITH
LORD HASKINS'
RECOMMENDATIONS
11. Devolution of delivery and segregation
of policy-making from delivery were strong strands in the recommendations
made by Lord Haskins' Review of Rural Delivery Arrangements and
it is the RDAs' view that the Secretary of State has accepted
these recommendations and created a framework within the Rural
Strategy to achieve them. Lord Haskins identified a clear role
for Regional Development Agencies in the delivery of the Government's
rural policy, a role which the Secretary of State has supported
and which we welcome. RDAs firmly believe that the customer will
benefit from devolved delivery and are in full support of a model
that incorporates regional strategic leadership and local delivery.
In relation to the other recommendations made
by Lord Haskins, we offer the following thoughts:
(a) We agree with the approach the Secretary
of State has taken in relation to the recommendation about Regional
Rural Priority Boards. There are a number of regional rural partnership
structures and mechanisms already in place which could fulfil
the role identified by Lord Haskins. We firmly support Defra's
view that the regions should be allowed to determine how they
work in partnership to identify rural needs and to monitor and
co-ordinate activity without being required to establish a Regional
Rural Priority Board which risks duplicating existing structures.
(b) Initially we had reservations about the
Secretary of State's intention to allow the Countryside Agency
to continue, however we are now more confident that the Countryside
Agency will have a clearly defined national role which will not
duplicate that of other bodies (for example, core Defra) or infringe
on other organisations' areas of activity (for example, in the
regional arena). This clearly defined role must be adhered to
in the long term.
(c) RDAs strongly support the proposals for
a new Integrated Agency for biodiversity, natural resource protection
and land management. We expect to work closely with it and the
Environment Agency to ensure that sustainable development, which
is core to the work of all the organisations, is achieved at the
regional and sub-regional level, by connecting our work in a way
that builds on the specialisms of the RDAs, the Integrated Agency
and the Environment Agency. It is imperative in our view that
in creating the new Integrated Agency the interests of the three
bodies which will be incorporated in to it are equally represented
and reflected. One body must not be allowed to dominate the structure
and culture of the new Integrated Agency as this could prove detrimental
to its success.
(d) RDAs have been strong advocates of the
need for simplified, streamlined funding and therefore fully support
Lord Haskins' recommendation regarding simplification. RDAs are
pleased that the Secretary of State addressed this recommendation
as a priority by commissioning a Review of Rural Funding Streams
and the result, a focus on just three funding strands, will lead
to greater clarity and less confusion for the customer, swiftly
delivering visible benefits. However, it will only work if it
is embraced whole-heartedly by Defra in both the short and the
long-term and recognises that regional flexibility will be required
to ensure "fit" with the regional implementation arrangements.
We would urge Defra to resist the temptation to create new funding
streams to respond to needs (for example, in the last few months,
Defra has launched the Defra/DWP Partnership Fund) and instead
it must seek to channel all new funding through the three streams
that have now been created.
(e) Finally, Lord Haskins recommended that
Government Offices "should focus on their role as co-ordinators
and monitors of programmes affecting rural areas and not be involved
in direct delivery". The Secretary of State, however, has
decided to "run Defra programmes and funding streams through
the Government Offices for the Regions in the future" to
increase the impact of their programmes by joining them up with
those of other departments. This will need to be carefully and
appropriately managed within the Regional Rural Delivery Frameworks.
21 September 2004
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