Chaos engulfs Conservative position on Regional Development Agencies

Our place to talk – an independent website for supporters of the Liberal Democrat party in the UK.

The most-read independent website by and for Lib Dem supporters. Not paid for by trade unions or millionaires.

By Mark Pack | Tue 2nd February 2010 - 8:55 am

Follow @markpack

Back in December I reported how Caroline Spelman had dropped the Conservative Party’s policy of abolishing Regional Development Agencies. Then last week Ken Clarke was reported as ordering a review of the nine English RDAs to decide what to do with them, but now the Conservative Party has denied there’s a review. So there’s going to abolish them, but not and going to review them, but not. All clear I trust?

Read more by Mark Pack or more about caroline spelman, ken clarke or regional development agencies.
This entry was posted in News.

Christian Spence 2nd Feb '10 - 9:09am

About as crystal clear as the Liberal Democrats’ recent policy change on RDAs, then.
Mark Wright 2nd Feb '10 - 9:43am

It’s all a bit silly isnt it. The Conservative silliness follows from the Government’s silly decision to scrap regional assemblies rather than the RDAs. It is the RDAs that are unelected, unaccountable quangos; the regional assemblies were the only democratic oversight of the area. However, the assemblies werent popular with business, because they kept representing people instead of commercial interests; whereas the RDAs are totally about commercial interests.
The Yorkshire Guidon 2nd Feb '10 - 11:18am

What is the Liberal Democrat policy on RDAs? I am hearing a rumour that there could be a ‘Northern’ exception to abolition. isn’t this something the party should be debating?

By The coalition agreement: banking and business on Mon 24th May 2010 at 10:21 am.

[…] Regional Development Agencies, the cause of quite a lot of confusion in Conservative policy-making, the agreement is explicit that they go, to be replaced by Local Enterprise Partnerships. These […]