Oldham will miss out on regional aid: MP

Abolishing the body charged with bringing investment into the area will result in places such as Oldham missing out, an MP has warned.

Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Phil Woolas said the decision by the coalition Government to abolish the North-West Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and replace it with smaller local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) will be disastrous.

Mr Woolas said: “This policy is ridiculous. We cannot co-ordinate economic policy without either Whitehall or local councils clubbing together, so we may as well have a regional agency.

“This will suck power to the centre and it is disastrous for our manufacturing business.

“The NWDA has had strong support from across all parties. This is just dogma.

“Small areas like ours will miss out because we cannot strategically intervene.

“The M60 and the Metrolink was put together at a regional level so protection and support for our industries cannot be done by individual councils but regionally.”

The fine print of the Government’s plans to replace the NWDA with LEPs will mean key responsibilities — for business support, inward investment, innovation and managing venture capital funds — being transferred back to London. It pours doubt over the Government’s claim to be devolving power to local communities by abolishing the “bloated” RDAs.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said it was vital to replace the RDAs, adding: “If you want to rebuild a fragile national economy you don’t strangle business with red tape and let bloated regional quangos make a difference.”

But Labour spokesman Pat McFadden said RDAs had done a good job for local economies, bringing in £4.50 for every £1 spent.

The Government announcement came as Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg launched a £1 billion Regional Growth Fund to help areas at risk of being hit especially hard by public spending cuts.

It will operate for two years, from next April. Both private bodies and public-private partnerships will be able to bid for cash from the fund by demonstrating that their proposal will bring in private investment and support sustainable increases in private sector jobs and growth in their area.

Mr Clegg said the fund will ensure no region or community gets left behind.