Committee inquiry
2. The Committee's inquiry was intended as an opportunity
to consider the general issue of sub-national governance in economic
development policy and, particularly, the role of regional development
agencies (RDAs) in undertaking this. Accordingly, when the Business
and Enterprise Committee announced its inquiry into the role and
effectiveness of RDAs on 3 June 2008, it asked for evidence on:
- the need for a level of economic
development/ business/ regeneration policy delivery between central
and local government;
- the effectiveness of RDAs and their role in adding
value;
- RDA expertise;
- the extent of, and need for, their overseas activities;
- the consequences of expanding RDAs' remit to
include new functions, as proposed by the sub-national review,
including the delivery of EU funding;
- the accountability of RDAs; and
- how RDA performance has been measured in the
past and will be measured in the future.
3. The launch of the inquiry, however, coincided
with the Government's proposals to reform sub-national governance
through the Review of sub-national economic development and regeneration
(sub-national review or SNR) and the inquiry examined these proposals
in depth.
4. During the Government's consultation on the SNR
proposals, the Committee called for written evidence and took
oral evidence. 114 written submissions were received, a significant
number for a committee inquiry and indicative of the interest
in this issue.[4] The Committee
took oral evidence from representatives of the private sector
and local authorities at its meeting on 7 October 2008 and from
RDAs on 14 October 2008.
5. When the Government revised its proposals as a
result of the consultation, the Committee invited written submissions
on the revised proposals and took evidence on these, and the recently
-introduced Bill, from Pat McFadden MP, Minister for Employment
Relations and Postal Affairs, whose remit includes RDAs, at its
meeting on 15 December 2008.
6. Members endeavoured to visit the RDAs in their
regions and the Chairman and Mr Anthony Wright MP visited the
development agency for the North East of England, One NorthEast,
in October 2008 as there are no Committee Members from that region.
The Committee had also previously visited the West Midlands development
agency, Advantage West Midlands, in May 2008 and the Scottish
development agency, Scottish Enterprise, in June 2008 as part
of its inquiry into creating a higher value-added economy. Inevitably,
these visits provided the opportunity to discuss wider issues
regarding the role of development agencies in promoting economic
development and supporting businesses at sub-national level (although
Scottish Enterprise lies outside the scope of this report on the
English RDAs).
7. The Committee extends its thanks to all the individuals
and organisations who took the time to provide evidence to assist
Members with this inquiry.
Structure of the report
8. This Report is divided into two sections. Chapter
2 considers the broader issue of sub-national governance of economic
development issues and RDAs' effectiveness in performing this
function. As the inquiry evolved away from these broader issues,
the Committee considers that these conclusions about the general
role of regional development agencies are preliminary only and
this is something that the Committee, or a successor, may wish
to return to in future.
9. Chapters 3-7 focus on the SNR; chapter 3 provides
a summary of the SNR proposals and process and chapters 4-7 each
highlight a key group of SNR proposals:
- Single integrated regional
strategy and associated regional governance structures;
- Local authority economic assessment duty;
- Sub-regional collaboration on economic development;
and
- RDAs' delegation of decision making to sub-regions.
10. Each SNR chapter sets out the:
- initial SNR proposals (set
out in the original SNR document, July 2007, and consultation
document, March 2008);
- issues raised in written and oral evidence to
these initial SNR proposals;
- revised SNR proposals, if applicable as not all
the proposals were revised following the Government's consultation
(set out in the consultation responses document, November 2008,
and the Bill);
- issues raised in written and oral evidence to
these revised SNR proposals; and
- the Committee's conclusions and recommendations.
11. It should be noted, however, that the conclusions
and recommendations contained in chapters 3-6 are based on the
Bill as first introduced into the House of Lords. Some of the
issues relating to the SNR proposals or Bill highlighted in this
Report might have been addressed during the passage of the Bill
through the House of Lords.[5]
At the time of making this Report, the Lords are considering the
Bill at Committee stage and no amendments relating to the economic
development aspects of the Bill have been agreed.
1 Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction
Bill - http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldbills/002/2009002.pdf Back
2
Clauses 63 - 132 - Part 4, Local authority economic assessments;
Part 5, Regional strategy; Part 6, Economic prosperity boards
and combined authorities; and Part 7, Multi-area agreements, relate
to economic development. Back
3
Review of sub national economic development and regeneration (SNR1)
- http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file40436.pdf Back
4
Business and Enterprise Committee - http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmberr/1054/1054.pdf Back
5
For the purposes of this report, the overall review of sub-national
economic development and regeneration process will be referred
to as the SNR process. The initial review document published in
July 2007 will be referred to as SNR1, the consultation document
published on 31 March 2008 will be referred to as SNR2 and the
Government's revised proposals published on 25 November 2008 will
be referred to as SNR3. Back
