Comments on: Do Regions Matter? http://blog.lgiu.org.uk/2009/07/do-regions-matter/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=do-regions-matter strengthening local democracy to put citizens in control of their own lives, communities and local services Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:12:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Frederick http://blog.lgiu.org.uk/2009/07/do-regions-matter/#comment-103 Frederick Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:33:56 +0000 http://lgiu.wordpress.com/?p=849#comment-103 Fiddling while Rome burns? how much time is spent working out SNR, talking about restructuring RDAs while the recession goes merrily on. How much civil servant, RDA, local government official time is spent on this while we are in the middle of an economic crisis! I can't believe the debate sometimes - shouldn't the major topics be about addressing the recession and unemployment? Its what you do, and how effective it is, not structures, which matter at the end of the day. As for accountability - plenty of local authorities run development companies with business led boards. Not that different to RDAs are they? the LSCs are a salutory lesson - restructuring youth learning and training in the middle of a recession whilst the client base doubles. Tming not good. And localising business support has been a disaster in Scotland. Small Business Gateway got transferred by the SNP from Scottish Enterprise to local authorities and is much poorer for it. And the Welsh Assembly disbanded the WDA and took it into the Welsh Assembly Government machine. Sadly its not the respected agency it once was. Its been decimated. Democratic accountability does not equate to effectiveness. Its what you do and how you do it, not which structure it sits in. I see plenty of good local authorities at economic development, but they are outnumbered by the poor ones. And the democractically elected officials are often struggling with the economy brief, especially outside of the cities. Lastly - I don't see one advocate of disbanding RDAs amongst the major business representative organisations. Local authorities face a major credibility gap in this regard. The challenges are massive, and I think SNR should be kicked into the long grass until the tories get in. Fiddling while Rome burns? how much time is spent working out SNR, talking about restructuring RDAs while the recession goes merrily on. How much civil servant, RDA, local government official time is spent on this while we are in the middle of an economic crisis!

I can’t believe the debate sometimes – shouldn’t the major topics be about addressing the recession and unemployment?

Its what you do, and how effective it is, not structures, which matter at the end of the day.

As for accountability – plenty of local authorities run development companies with business led boards. Not that different to RDAs are they?

the LSCs are a salutory lesson – restructuring youth learning and training in the middle of a recession whilst the client base doubles. Tming not good.

And localising business support has been a disaster in Scotland. Small Business Gateway got transferred by the SNP from Scottish Enterprise to local authorities and is much poorer for it.

And the Welsh Assembly disbanded the WDA and took it into the Welsh Assembly Government machine. Sadly its not the respected agency it once was. Its been decimated.

Democratic accountability does not equate to effectiveness. Its what you do and how you do it, not which structure it sits in. I see plenty of good local authorities at economic development, but they are outnumbered by the poor ones. And the democractically elected officials are often struggling with the economy brief, especially outside of the cities.

Lastly – I don’t see one advocate of disbanding RDAs amongst the major business representative organisations. Local authorities face a major credibility gap in this regard.

The challenges are massive, and I think SNR should be kicked into the long grass until the tories get in.

]]> By: Nicola Headlam http://blog.lgiu.org.uk/2009/07/do-regions-matter/#comment-102 Nicola Headlam Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:14:46 +0000 http://lgiu.wordpress.com/?p=849#comment-102 Dear Andy, Interesting this since Bob Neil then hopped on the train to deliver the keynote address at the CLES Summer Summit "Forging resilient Locla Economies" in Manchester (yesterday) and in his speech committed to dismantling the whole regional infra-structure - RDAs and all. We were a litte surprised (not least becuase we had numerous regional people in the audience) because we had thought that the Conservative position was the one which David Cameron had outlined in Bury in the fallout from the Policy Exchange "burn the North" debate ; that RDAs would remain in some form to demonstrate commitment to regeneration... Seems that listening to Douglas at your event had stiffened Bob's resolve... Nicola Headlam Dear Andy,

Interesting this since Bob Neil then hopped on the train to deliver the keynote address at the CLES Summer Summit “Forging resilient Locla Economies” in Manchester (yesterday) and in his speech committed to dismantling the whole regional infra-structure – RDAs and all.

We were a litte surprised (not least becuase we had numerous regional people in the audience) because we had thought that the Conservative position was
the one which David Cameron had outlined in Bury in the fallout from the Policy Exchange “burn the North” debate ; that RDAs would remain in some form to demonstrate commitment to regeneration…

Seems that listening to Douglas at your event had stiffened Bob’s resolve…

Nicola Headlam

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