Tories would axe quango

THE quango set up to attract businesses and jobs to the region is as doomed as Anne Boleyn under the ruthless reign of Henry VIII, a senior Tory has said.

Eric Pickles, the party’s local government spokesman, let slip his determination to guillotine the North-West Regional Development Agency (NWDA) during a fringe meeting at the Conservative conference in Birmingham.

During a question-and-answer session with business leaders, Mr Pickles said his policy was still being finalised and promised the final details before the next general election.

But he added: “If you were to ask a straightforward question — what difference have regional development agencies made to the development of our country?— the honest answer is that, on balance, they probably haven’t done any damage.”

And, asked if he would restructure the quangos, Mr Pickles replied: “In terms of our plans for quangos, you could only possibly say we were looking towards restructuring them if you felt that Anne Boleyn received a restructuring from the guillotine.

“So, in that sense there is going to be a sort of divvying up of the corpse.”

Instead, local councils would be encouraged to work in partnership in economic areas, rather than in artificial regions.

Changes would be made on the basis of consent, which meant existing regions could continue to work together as one big bloc if they wanted. But no region would wish to, he predicted.



In July, the Conservatives vowed to axe the network of overseas offices set up by almost all RDAs to encourage foreign firms to create jobs in their region. The NWDA runs offices in Australia, Japan and the United States at a cost of £372,000.