I took up the post as chair of England’s RDAs on 1 April. It is a challenging role: we live in times where the role of RDAs depends on the election. But even though the role of the RDAs may change, the need to provide the context for investment will remain.

Each RDA reflects its own region. For certain purposes we need to get together to make sure we have a coherent message and talk coherently across the network. While RDAs have not always been perfect, their motivation to get things right is very high.

One of the special things about RDAs is that they answer a call that had been going on for many years about providing a single stop for business. Since they were established in 1998 they’ve had a range of functions for regeneration put into them.

When RDAs started, they were very targeted streams of government funding.

Since then they have been widened out, and we have had European funding added to our portfolio. One major fact that is almost inevitable is that European funds, such as JESICA  (Joint European Support for Investment in City Areas), has become far more significant. These are particularly important at a time when property investment has had an understandable decline.

The RDAs perform some important functions.  In the South West, we’ve created a regional infrastructure fund that enables money to be used upfront and then recovered from the future proceeds from development

Outside Taunton, we’ve worked with the environment agency and others to bring down the potential cost of protecting developments in Taunton from flood relief from £20m to 1.2m – removing the uncertainties of flooding from development.

The NWDA’s Newlands scheme I think is hugely beneficial. The £23m scheme is reclaiming 435 ha of brownfield land across the north west and transform them into thriving community woodlands, restoring derelict industrial sites, and using tree planting to create new environment.

They’re not things that would have been done by private investors but they have hugely improved the quality of life for people in those areas and improved property values. These are reclamation problems the private sector would fail to deal with.

We need to make sure there is a good background in which people can invest and make profits. We’ve become more and more expert in evaluating the success of RDA-invested projects. There is a £4.50 return for every £1 invested.

We’re also a statutory consultee of the planning system, which is really important. When major developments are put through, RDAs are the only one bit of government that puts its head up and says the business factors that need to be considered.

Our role as a statutory consultee will continue, because making sure the planning system provides certainty and clarity is vital.

One of the things that the RDAs have become conscious of is the spectrum of issues that are important at a national level and things that are important at the very, very local level.

Nothing ever neatly falls along boundaries though. I live in one bit of Devon. My experience of life and my relationship with the things around me is very different to someone who’s living in the Northern part of the county.

The problems of potholes and street lighting are different to the aerospace industry or the transport infrastructure. You have to judge things at the right level.

Without any doubt, there are going to be public sector cuts. Where those cuts fall will not be a decision over which the RDAs have any significant influence. The RDAs need to focus on making sure the economy does as well as it can while those cuts are occurring.

Whatever happens after the election, the RDAs’ experience should be built on. The biggest event of the next two months is the election, so I will be working across RDAs to make sure we’re collaborating, learning from experience and developing best practice.

You learn through making mistakes and doing things. Experience is rarely gained without making any mistakes at all. I think one of the great strengths of the RDA is that it can build on what it’s learnt over the last 12 years.

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