Birmingham City Council is exploring the option of creating a Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to take over funding powers held by Advantage West Midlands.
The council has confirmed that a motion it passed in June last year indicated it would look to take over the Regional Development Agency’s regeneration powers.
Communities secretary Eric Pickles has also confirmed that he would be prepared to devolve powers to the LEP with the agreement of business leaders, contradicting a suggestion by business secretary Vince Cable on Friday that the RDA would retain its regional structure.
The …

Regional development agencies (RDAs) in the south of England are to suffer the biggest cuts from central government, business secretary Vince Cable said today.
Speaking in Yorkshire this afternoon, Cable said the south east, south west and London did not need RDAs to assist with economic growth, warning that “big cuts will come”, and so-called Local Enterprise Partnerships between councils and local businesses would replace ineffective RDAs.
Cable, who was speaking alongside prime minister David Cameron on how the new coalition planned to rebalance the UK …

Regional Development Agencies will have to delay and renegotiate contracts in order to meet the £270m savings demanded by the Treasury, according to the RDA National Secretariat.
Sir Harry Studholme (pictured), chair of the South West Development Agency and spokesman for England’s RDAs, said today that all RDA funding for 2010-2011 projects had already been committed to projects, making delays and renegotiations inevitable.
On Monday, chancellor George Osborne announced £6.2bn of in-year cuts, including £270m of savings on RDA programmes, or 20% of their budget. The chief secretary to the Treasury, David …

The new government is right to make cuts to public sector property and regional development agencies, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has said today.
John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the CIPD, has welcomed the promised freeze on civil service recruitment, which was announced as part of Chancellor George Osborne’s £6.25bn savings announced today. He also said that property, quangos, and  consultancy are also “ripe for cuts”.
Today, Public Property UK reported that George Osborne wants to save £170m on public property, and sharply reduce the amount of public …

Chancellor George Osborne has announced £6.2bn of savings the government wants this financial year, including £170m savings from property.
Osborne and David Laws, chief secretary to the Treasury, set out plans to start reducing the £156bn public sector budget deficit this morning. They said the Treasury would need to give approval for any large spending by government departments.
Within the £6.2bn figure there were targets for saving £170m by reducing property costs, £1.15bn by cutting government consultancy services, and £1.7bn by renegotiating contracts with the government’s largest 70 contractors.
Other cuts to be …

Regional planning strategies are likely to be abandoned whatever the outcome from the election, according to the president of the Planning Officers Society.
This morning, it emerged that a hung parliament is inevitable, meaning a coalition government between several parties will be formed.
Both the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have said they would push to scrap regional spatial strategies in the next parliament.
Labour would agree to scrapping the regional planning tier it introduced if it meant holding onto power, David Hackforth told Public Property UK today.
“The election won’t be decided on planning,” …

Labour has promised to invest in seaside towns beyond 2011 via the Regional Development Agencies if it wins the election.
Yesterday, the party launched its Seaside Manifesto, which promises to  invest in infrastructure such as piers and educational buildings via RDAs beyond 2011, when its current Sea Change investment programme ends. It would also give regional ministers a new duty to promote their seaside towns.
Labour says the Conservatives’ plan to scrap RDAs would threaten key regeneration schemes in towns such as Blackpool (pictured).
The manifesto states that £220m invested  by the North …

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 …

Regional development agencies have spent £5bn on regeneration schemes but could have invested their money better, an auditor has reported.
Today, the National Audit Office has published its 35-page report Regenerating The English Regions which says that the eight RDAs outside London have spent £5bn since 1999 but have been weak at identifying the best projects to invest in.
It said RDAs have not demonstrated that they have maximised economic growth because they cannot prove they have backed the right projects.
Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said: “The regional development …

Manchester councils want the government to create a single public authority to coordinate transport, regeneration and economic development in Greater Manchester.
Today, Manchester’s 10 councils submitted a proposal to the government on creating a body to deliver new powers which have been devolved to so-called City Regions.
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority would establish a joint committee responsible for delivering transport across the Manchester City Region, comparable to Transport for London.
The scheme is part of a wider drive to give more power over spending on infrastructure to core cities through the use …