Examination of Witnesses (Questions 47-59)
2 NOVEMBER 2004
MR DAVID
MARLOW, MS
JUDITH BARKER
AND DR
RICHARD HUTCHINS
Q47 Chairman: I am sorry we have kept
you waiting. Would you introduce yourselves to the Committee please?
Mr Marlow: I am David Marlow,
Chief Executive of the East of England Development Agency.
Dr Hutchins: Richard Hutchins,
Corporate Director at Advantage West Midlands.
Ms Barker: I am Judith Barker,
the head of Environment and Community Development in the East
of England Development Agency.
Q48 Chairman: You heard us earlier taking
evidence from our last witnesses, but we are keen to talk to the
RDAs because in a sense you are acquiring new responsibilities,
new powers, maybe some new finance, can you take us through what
you think is happening?
Mr Marlow: Very briefly, the Rural
Strategy does envisage the RDAs taking on additional responsibilities
for some socio-economic rural development, and it does provide
for about a £21 million additional Defra contribution for
the RDA single pot in order to deliver improved results in rural
communities.
Q49 Just remind me, there are nine RDAs?
Mr Marlow: There are nine RDAs
in England, yes.
Q50 Chairman: Sometimes they are criticised
for being a bit urbocentric, how are you all coping with these
new powers and responsibilities which have been put on you?
Mr Marlow: I think the RDAs would
argue that since we were established five years ago, we have actually
been involved integrally in rural development, that we have had
some successes over the first five years of the RDAs, and indeed
Defra has been contributing something around £45 million
into the single pot in the first five years. We have had some
successes; just as we probably could do better in the urban environment
I am sure there are improvements we could also make in the rural
environment, but we do have a track record of rural delivery.
Q51 Chairman: Dr Hutchins, the West Midlands
conjures up the Black Country and Birmingham. I know there is
a lot more to it than that, some nice areas, but how does the
rural dimension feel to you?
Dr Hutchins: I think you are right,
the perception of the West Midlands is that it is an urban region,
but quite the contrary to a large extent. If you take the
areas of Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, where I
am responsible for the delivery activity of AWM's remit in those
parts of the West Midlands, clearly they are highly rural sub-regions.
To put it into come form of context, Advantage West Midlands has
a single pot of around £300 million, and we put around £40-50
million a year into those three counties in the rural West Midlands
alone and there is the Defra contribution of around £5-6
million. We have established a rural regeneration zone as a key
delivery vehicle in our rural western sub-region of the West Midlands,
and our allocation to that delivery vehicle is currently around
£8 million a year, rising to £16 million over the next
three years. So our investments into the rural western sub-region
of the West Midlands are quite considerable.
Q52 Chairman: I think David Marlow used
the phrase that you had been asked to take on some "socio-economic
responsibilities". I am clear about the economic responsibilities,
but just spell out what the socio-economic responsibilities are.
Mr Marlow: Clearly there are links
between social, economic and environmental investments, and it
is very rare that you actually have a pure economic investment
which has no social or environmental impact and consequence, and
that would certainly be the case. What we are in the middle of
agreeing with Defra and indeed with Government is the tasking
framework for RDAs.
Q53 Chairman: What does that mean? That
is a posh phrase, is it not?
Mr Marlow: It is the results which
RDAs are expected to deliver which contribute to Government's,
normally public service agreement, targets over the next three
years, 2005-06 through to 2007-08. In terms of the rural domain,
we would expect the results that Government seeks from RDAs to
include contributions to sustainable development, as that is defined
in the public service agreement, to rural productivity, to sustainable
food and farming, and all of that has social as well as economic
consequences.
Q54 Chairman: So you are being asked
to take on new jobs from 1 April and you are still defining the
tasks which are given to you?
Mr Marlow: We are defining the
specific contributions which we need to make to those tasks.
Q55 Mr Jack: You mentioned rural productivity,
does that mean you are going to help farmers to farm better?
Mr Marlow: It means we want to
help Defra achieve increases in productivity across rural districts,
part of which is farming, but actually, if you take the East of
England for example, there is far more employment in manufacturing
in rural districts than there is in farming, and far more employment
in tourism. So it would be as part of the RDA's overall enterprise
skills remit, competitiveness remit, to raise productivity across
rural districts in a variety of sectors, including farming.
Q56 Mr Jack: Is the answer to my question
"yes"?
Mr Marlow: It includes farming.
Q57 Mr Jack: It includes farming. Are
you going to have any resources to invest in farming to help achieve
that increase in productivity?
Mr Marlow: I will pass over to
Judith in a second, but broadly speaking in the short-run farms
are like any other business in terms of getting access to business
support, which RDAs are providing and will take on more responsibility
for from next year. We are also having increased involvement in
the European funding which is provided to farm businesses and
that will increase over the period, particularly post-2007.
Ms Barker: Obviously RDAs have
been working very closely with Defra in terms of their delivery
for the strategy for sustainable food and farming, and there are
a number of projects which RDAs have received funding for alongside
the Government Offices to take forward regional partners' projects
in terms of the food and farming agenda. One of the other things
we are taking forward as part of the Rural Strategy as well is
looking at issues of business support for farming as well as the
broader rural business community, so that is another area in which
things are coming up and we are taking forward. The third area
that is obviously critical is in terms of working with farmers
and the business support providers in terms of meeting the challenges
of CAP Reform, and that is another major plank of the work we
are doing in terms of that agenda.
Dr Hutchins: It is difficult to
separate out farming distinctly. There are one or two things we
are doing in the West Midlands. Just by way of an example, we
have established a food and farming team specifically to help
farmers—and other rural businesses it has to be said—in
terms of delivering the sustainable food and farming strategy.
It is not exclusively for farming.
Q58 Mr Jack: What you have both identified
is an interesting agenda, particularly in the light of the resources
thrown up by the single farm payment to generate potential new
economic activity in a rural setting, but the question I asked
was about farmers' productivity, and you neatly danced round that
one by focusing on economic activity in a rural area. I do not
blame you for answering in that way, but I am still waiting to
have an answer to the question about productivity on farms.
Dr Hutchins: I do not think there
is a specific answer to it. There are a number of interventions
which RDAs are delivering in rural areas which apply to farmers,
for example the provision of rural broadband will help farmers
become more economically viable, and we have a number of interventions
which will take broadband to rural areas, up to 100% in places
in the West Midlands over the course of the next two years. That
will help with farm-based productivity but it is not directly
tied to farming, it will encapsulate farming productivity though.
Mr Jack: Okay.
Q59 Mr Drew: If we could look at the
issue of accountability, how would you as RDAs want to be measured
in terms of your effectiveness in delivering these policies in
rural areas?
Mr Marlow: RDAs obviously have
multiple channels of accountability, we have to contribute to
Government public service agreement results, and that is a lot
of what grant-in-aid is for. We also formulate with partners,
and we are the host for regional economic strategies, and most
of those strategies have rural dimensions about what are the changes
in the rural economy and rural communities which should be prioritised
for the region. Thirdly, and one of the things which does come
out of Rural Strategy 2004, is the concept of Regional Rural Delivery
Frameworks which would be work convened by Government Offices
but including all major rural providers of services and responsibility
to stakeholders to actually set out a framework for improving
rural service delivery. So I think there are various strands of
accountability through central government, through the regional
economic strategy and then through the new area we are working
on with colleagues on Regional Rural Delivery Frameworks.
| 
