The South West of England Regional Development Agency leads the development of a sustainable economy in the South West England, investing to unlock the region’s business potential. It is a non-departmental public body. On Tuesday 17 July 2007, Local Government Minister John Healey MP announced Government plans to abolish regional assemblies. Functions of regional assemblies are planned to pass to Regional Development Agencies and a regional Board of Local Authority Leaders. This tranition will occur when the Local Democracy Economic Development and Construction Bill is passed - likely in the summer of 2009. [1]
The South West RDA covers the following areas:
The head office is in Exeter city centre, with a secondary office in Bristol and satellite offices in Plymouth, Poole and Truro (Cornwall).
Each of England's 9 RDA's is required to work with partners in the region to draw together a Regional Economic Strategy. [1] This document sets out for the whole region how the RDAs statutory objectives would be met and the region developed. These strategies are owned by the whole region, not just the RDA. They provide the context for other economic development and regeneration activity in the region and provide Departments with a framework that sets out the direction that policies in that region should support. These are reflected in the regional emphasis documents that each region prepared for the Spending Review. These have enabled Departments to consider the impacts that their policies will have in the regions over the next spending period.
The South West RDA's plans are aligned with three strategic objectives:
In the North Devon town of Ilfracombe, the agency is working with The Ilfracombe & District Community Alliance and North Devon District Council formulating detailed plans for the town's economic and physical structures. Proposed key developments include; enhancement of the harbour; implementation of a light vehicle and foot passenger ferry service to Swansea - a Welsh city which is only twenty one miles away across the Bristol Channel; the re-development of the derelict bus station site; and creation of better youth support and recreation facilities on the Eastern side of the harbour area.
The SWRDA also supports the Grant for Research and Development [2], which helps comapnies create new products.
The SWRDA has also invested in Exeter Science Park [3] and the Eden Project.
Figures released in 2008 showed that the SWRDA investments had led to a significant number of jobs being created in the region. This news was well received in the region [4]
Critics of the South West Regional Assembly and the South West RDA say they are unelected, unrepresentative and unaccountable "quangos", and the area covered is an artificially imposed large region and not natural.[5][6][7] However, this argument is equally true of Local Authority administrative boundaries, that rarely reflect true economic flows such as Travel to Work patterns, housing markets, or flows of trade and goods. This opinion is based upon geography, arguing that having the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall in the same region as Gloucestershire would be comparable to linking London with Yorkshire.[8], which whilst on the face of it is ludricous, would actually quite fairly map some economic flows of goods and resources. The feeling is strong with some residents of Cornwall, despite that county receiving a disproportionately large amount of RDA funding as match-funding for European Convergence funds. There have been calls for a Cornish Development Agency from Cornish MPs Dan Rogerson and Andrew George along with the Cornish political party Mebyon Kernow.[9] On 19 July 2007 Dan Rogerson welcomed a government announcement that unelected Regional Assemblies are to be scrapped and he asked the government to look again at the case for a locally accountable Cornish Development agency, "in light of the important convergence funding from the EU”. Cornish MP Andrew George said in July 2007 I’m optimistic that the Minister’s announcement will give us the future prospects to build a strong consensus, demonstrate Cornwall’s distinctiveness from the Government zone for the South West and then draw up plans so that we can decide matters for ourselves locally rather than being told by unelected quangos in Bristol and elsewhere.”[10]
The South West Regional Development Agency has an annual budget of around £180 million and has spent almost £2 million opening offices as far away as Australia and China and has offices or representatives in five international cities. SWRDA admitted in 2008 that it has spent £1,871,829 on international offices and staff since 2005 - these include Boston in the US, TokyoinJapan, Shenzhen in China, Melbourne in Australia and MumbaiinIndia. In the 2007-8 financial year, SWRDA also started an operation in Mumbai, which contributed to a total spend of £555,880.43. In March 2008 former Bristol Lord Mayor Peter Abraham criticised the SWRDA for these actions saying that it should be more publicly accountable.[11] The SWRDA was also criticised in December 2007 for spending more than £60,000 of taxpayers' money at a property trade show on the French Riviera, £61,000 on its annual staff conference in Wiltshire, plus £28,279 on another staff meeting last year in Torquay.
The South West Science and Industry Council advises the SWRDA on the effective use of science, technology and creativity.
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| Local authority leaders' boards |
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| Former Local authority leaders' boards |
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| Former regional assemblies |
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