Examination of Witnesses (Questions 254
- 259)
MONDAY 15 DECEMBER 2008
RT HON
PAT MCFADDEN
MP, MS PHILIPPA
LLOYD AND
MS BERNADETTE
KELLY
Q254 Chairman: Minister, welcome
to this third and final session on the Committee's inquiry into
the role and effectiveness of regional development agencies. I
wonder if I could begin by asking you to introduce your team.
Mr McFadden:
Certainly. You know me. I cover regional development agencies
at BERR. On my left is Philippa Lloyd, who is the Director of
Regions at BERR, and on my right Bernadette Kelly, who is the
Director of Planning from the Department for Communities and Local
Government. The reason we thought it worthwhile having someone
from Communities and Local Government is that if we are talking
about the Sub National Review we have someone in both departments
who has been working together on this.
Q255 Chairman: I appreciate, Minister,
that there is a lot of overlap; that is very helpful. I think
tomorrow will be rather busier, I read in the papers, on another
subject dear to the Committee's heart.
Mr McFadden: Every day is busy.
Q256 Chairman: Can I begin by asking
the overarching question: why RDAs? There is a lot of evidence
we have had from the business community saying they welcome the
existence of something between central government and local government
and they want that something to be business-led, but why RDAs?
Why are they the best model to deliver the Government's objectives?
Mr McFadden: I think they do several
important functions quite well. They are a business-led organisation,
which makes them different from other parts of government. They
are not official-led, they are not Civil Service-led; they are
business-led. They are responsible for a lot of regeneration and
investment that happens across local authority boundaries and
very often if something is the responsibility of several people
that can mean that it is difficult to make progress. They deliver
a lot of business support through various programmes which have
just been simplified, a lot of them going into the new Solutions
for Business portfolio. They also respond to shocks, such as the
floods which affected many parts of the country in the summer
of 2007, where RDAs stepped in very quickly with loans to businesses
and so on in a quicker way, I think, than would have been the
case if the response had just been Whitehall-led. They perform
a number of functions which, as you say, lie between that which
government at the centre does and that which would normally be
done by local authorities.
Q257 Chairman: Are you happy with
the boundaries? I have always puzzled about where these boundaries
came from. Essex County Council, which came before this Committee
said, "Actually, we are a residue of civil defence planning
from the Second World War; that is our origin", and Essex
in particular drew our attention to the Thames Gateway project
where you have South East area, the Eastern area and the London
Development Agency all partners in a project that is very different.
Essex also pointed out that their issues are very different from
those of, for example, Anthony Wright's constituency which lies
in the EDA area as well. Do you think the boundaries are always
appropriate?
Mr McFadden: I think if you redrew
them you would simply move whatever problem you had up the road.
You could say the boundary of the East Midlands, for example,
should be 10 miles this way or 10 miles that way and we could
probably take up a lot of heat and energy arguing about that and
no doubt very good arguments could be made. Am I saying they are
a perfect representation of an identity that people feel? Not
in every region, but would it really gain anything to start redrawing
these boundaries? I am not sure about that either. They work in
the sense that they are there and different parts of government
are used to dealing with them, the local authorities are used
to dealing with them, the boundaries are familiar. Whether they
are perfect or not I do not know but I am not sure that changing
them would lead to a better situation.
Q258 Chairman: Julie Kirkbride and
I share the same regional development agency, which, by the way,
did respond very well in the floods in my constituency. Its boundary
is obviously between Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. Going
down to Gloucestershire you see the hi-tech business of aviation
aerospace in the Cheltenham/Gloucester area in particular. We
have a technology corridor supposedly running down from Birmingham
through Julie's constituency and through mine down to Maldon where
Qinetiq are based. That corridor goes right on down to the South
West. Do you feel sometimes these barriers get in the way of proper
joined-up thinking across those regional boundaries and focus
attention in the wrong direction? In other words, at the moment
one is almost forced to look north towards, of course, the West
Midlands Development Agency rather than looking south to the South
West Agency.
Mr McFadden: I do not think so.
I think you took evidence from some of the RDAs themselves where
there is a big strategically important sector such as aerospace.
The South West has a lot of aerospace industries. It has got a
big presence in aerospace but, as you say, quite rightly, so too
does the West Midlands. Does that inhibit their thinking in any
way? I do not really feel it does so I am not sure that is a huge
problem. Certainly in my career in doing this job boundaries have
not been raised with me a great deal at all.
Q259 Mr Binley: You comment on regions
where there is a connection, an identity. We do not have that
in Northamptonshire. We are really not a part of a thing called
the East Midlands and we are not sure if anybody in the East Midlands
thinks they are a part of a thing called the East Midlands, whereas
in Yorkshire there is a very tight identity and I guess in the
central part of the West Midlands there is too. Do you have any
assessment of the relationship between the effectiveness of a
given region and that identity factor?
Mr McFadden: In terms of effectiveness
you are right that this varies around the country and the common
example of a strong identity probably would be in the North East.
It does vary around the country in the sense of what the local
people feel about belonging to or having an affinity with the
region. In that RDA role of a voice in the region perhaps that
is easier where there is a strong regional identity. If you are
asking me do I feel that in those parts of the country where there
is not such a clear identity, such as your own perhaps, the RDA
cannot fulfil a good role in some of the things that I said at
the start I thought RDAs did well, I do not think that is so.
I think maybe in terms of being a recognised voice internally
within the region that might vary a little around the country,
but I do not think that lack of strong regional identity would
stop an East Midlands Regional Development Agency from doing a
good job.
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