Fears over future of South East England Development Agency (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Fears over future of South East England Development Agency

11:52am Wednesday 25th November 2009

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BUSINESSES have raised concerns about Tory plans to scrap a major quango that was set up to boost jobs and redevelopment in the south.

The Conservative Party has placed the South East England Regional Development Agency (Seeda) in its sights, complaining that the organisation is overbureaucratic and costly.

It wants to scrap the agency, which is credited with luring superyacht builder Palmer Johnson to Southampton, along with England’s entire regional tier of government. Instead it will give its powers over economic development and business funding to local councils instead.

Shadow Communities Secretary Caroline Spelman said that under a Conservative government England’s eight regional development agencies would ‘evolve’ into ‘leaner, more focused’ Local Enterprise Partnerships based on sub-regional economic areas.

But business leaders have warned that getting rid of regionwide bodies, which sit between local councils and national government, puts at risk the ability to take the strategic decisions on infrastructure and development needed to boost local jobs and growth.

Adam Marshall, the British Chambers of Commerce’s director of policy, said: “There’s a need for something to exist between Whitehall and central government and the level of the local authority.

Localism is something many people believe in but there’s a danger in going so local that you can’t take care of the strategic infrastructure which business thinks is so important.”

EEF, the industry body for 6,000 engineering and manufacturing firms, said: “Local authorities lack the critical mass, the funds and the ability to step outside local politics to identify the priorities for their region, to set out how best to meet them and to make it happen.”

John Cridland, deputy director general of the Confederation of British Industry, which describes itself as ‘the voice of business’, added: “There’s a danger the Conservatives’ policies don’t give business sufficient involvement in key regional decisions which affect them.”

Seeda declined to enter the debate over its future but issued a strong defence of its credentials for bringing investment into the region.

A spokesman said: “We are firmly focussed on economic development and taking a strategic role in positioning the South East strongly as a globally competitive economy.

“Seeda is supporting businesses and the economy in the South East with its expert knowledge of the region, helping to create jobs and improve productivity and adding £2.64 billion to the economy during 2002-07.”

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