The government has given the green light to 24 partnerships between local businesses and councils to replace regional development agencies (RDAs).
Speaking today in parliament, business secretary Vince Cable said that 24 groups of local authorities and private companies had successfully bid over the summer to form so-called local enterprise partnerships, …

The government is set to spend up to £1.4bn over the next four years on regional development agency projects and the cost of dismantling the regeneration bodies.
The government has today confirmed that it will be forced to keep spending on the doomed regional development agencies until 2015. It will also …

The government has today published a list of the 56 bids it has received from councils wanting to create local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) to take on housing, planning, and regeneration powers.
If approved, each body [full list of proposals below] will take on responsibilities currently held by regional development agenies  (RDAs).
Yesterday …

Public sector bodies are lobbying the government for a slice of regional development agencies’ (RDAs) property, once they are abolished.
On 8 July, it emerged that Communities and Local Government had set a deadline of April 2012 for the disposal of government offices and assets in the regions owned by RDAs.
Local …

Decentralisation minister Greg Clark (pictured) told the Royal Town Planning Institute’s (RTPI) Planning Convention on 29 June that councils from Teesside had already approached him about setting up one of the new partnerships.
“We’ve invited people where there is a natural economic geography, and they have jumped the gun,” he said. …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …