The Taxpayers' Alliance would like the regional development agencies abolished. M Institute co-founder Jyoti Banerjee studies their report - he likes their data but disagrees with their recommendation.
This month a report from the TaxPayers’ Alliance claims that the £15 billion spent on the Regional Development Agencies since their creation in 1999 has been a total waste as the RDAs have contributed absolutely nothing to the economic performance of the regions in the UK. The TPA report has three main planks of evidence: 1) The RDAs were created to improve the performance of the regions, particularly those outside London and the south-east. In 1992, London and the south-east contributed 36% of the UK economy, a figure that has grown (in the wrong direction) to 48% in 2006. 2) Employment across the country grew by 9.5% between 1995 and 2000, while it only grew by 3% between 2000 and 2005. 3) Regional inequality worsened: apart from London and the south-east, England’s regions grew faster before the RDAs were around, compared to the seven years after. To add to this lack of performance is a long account of RDA waste. For example, 39 RDA bureaucrats earn over £100,000 a year, one part-time RDA chairman had a travel expense bill of over £50,000 in a single year, and one RDA managed to spend £20,000 sending some of their team to a film festival in Dubai.
