Make RDAs the new regional planning bodies, says Whitehall

02 April 2008

Regional development agencies (RDAs) should become the new regional planning body, advising ministers on local transport priorities, the Government has proposed.

Regional spatial and regional transport strategies would be merged into an integrated regional strategy, ‘to drive forward economic development and regeneration,’ according to the government consultation paper. RDAs, which would ‘continue to be business-led’, would identify strategic requirements for transport and other infrastructure – where these are not already promoted by national policy statements.

The RDAs would have to ask a forum of local authority leaders to sign off their strategies, but they could submit the draft to ministers without their approval, ‘noting points of disagreement’. These would need to be ‘streamlined’ but ‘representative’.

The aim is to produce a process which is more streamlined, and which produces a plan ‘creating the conditions for innovation and enterprise to flourish’.

It should be possible to produce a regional strategy within two years, according to the consultation paper, published by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

But the document acknowledges there is a need for the process to be ‘clear, open and transparent’, and take into account local authorities’ views.

Cllr Keith Mitchell, the South East Regional Assembly chair, attacked the Government’s proposals ‘for important decisions to be made by unaccountable quangocrats rather than democratically-elected councillors’.

The plans would not streamline the process, said Mitchell, because the biggest delays were down to the Government itself. ‘Regional plans have been stuck in Whitehall awaiting ministerial approval for longer than they took to prepare’ – two years was the average preparation time for the regional spatial strategies.

Fiona Howie, the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s senior regional policy officer, was concerned at ‘the lack of democratic accountability’. In light of the Government’s acknowledgement of the importance of stakeholder engagement, she urged ‘thorough engagement’ with environmental, social and economic stakeholders, as well as local authorities.

Richard Wills, president of the County Surveyors’ Society, said local economies were generally driven at a sub-regional, not a regional level, so local authorities were crucial to creating the conditions for growth.

‘We intend to influence the regional strategies, not simply scrutinise them.’ He said his own authority, Lincolnshire County Council, had ‘the capacity and competence’ to effectively spend money to promote the economic growth that the Government might devolve from the RDAs.

‘This is as much a test for central Government, as it is for local government. Will ministers keep their promises to devolve more to local government?’ he asked.

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Make RDAs the new regional planning bodies, says Whitehall

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