Local authorities have distanced themselves from calls for new councillor-led structures that would have stripped regional development agencies (RDAs) of their power.

In a joint statement intended to dispel fears that tensions between RDAs and councils will make it difficult to pursue the government’s economic development ambitions, the Local Government Association (LGA) agreed that RDAs should remain business led.

The LGA/RDA statement flies in the face of recent efforts by South East England Regional Assembly (Seera) to make regional decision making more democratically accountable by replacing the RDA board with a councillor-led body to take decisions on planning, housing and transport (New Start, 14 March).

Under the proposals, government appointees would have been in the minority, while councillors represented 70% of the membership.

This week, as the consultation on the sub-national review of economic development and regeneration drew to a close, Seera unveiled a new survey suggesting local residents believe councils should make decisions on housing, planning and transport – not ‘remote quangocrats appointed, paid and instructed by government’.

When asked who should be responsible for regional decisions on large-scale planning, housing and transport, 41% said councillors, 35% said central government, while civil servants were favoured by just 9%.

‘Residents’ voices must be heard, so we need to make sure that councillors retain the lead on important issues such as housing, transport and the environment,’ said assembly chair Keith Mitchell.

Although the LGA has rejected Seera’s proposals, the statement agreed that planning ‘needs to be anchored in the democratic political process, with political responsibility taken at the appropriate level for different orders of planning decisions’.

Other areas of agreement between RDAs and local authorities include the use of single pot funding for economic priorities and a commitment to submit integrated regional strategies to ministers only when they have been agreed.

Provision exists to submit the strategies where there has been failure to reach agreement and request government intervention, but RDAs and councils say they will use this only as a last resort.

Issues of which areas of work are delegated, however, remain unresolved with no firm agreement as yet on whether business support will be delivered at regional or sub-regional level.

by Susan Downer
susan@newstartmag.co.uk