Kevin Rowan column

Oct 10 2005 By Kevin Rowan, The Journal

Is this a case of bad government?

Much has been made of the line taken by the Regional Development Agency during last week's launch of the latest report into tackling economic inactivity.

The RDA stands accused of "attacking" the Department for Work and Pensions for not giving enough consideration to the regional dimension of their activities.

This apparent spat not only exposes the flaws in the national government response to some of the challenges that we face in this region, it also greatly exposes the kind of fractures and tensions in the implementation and delivery of public policy that make it inefficient and ineffective - a simple case of bad government.

The RDA is charged with regenerating the region, increasing our prosperity and improving the economy of the North-East.

The two broad aims articulated to achieve this are to improve productivity rates within companies, and to increase the participation of individuals in the labour market, with the Regional Economic Strategy outlining the policies and processes that are needed to achieve that.

Given that economic inactivity, the term given to describe the number of people not active in the labour market either working or looking for work, is at its highest rate in this region, and accounts for 40% of the productivity gap, this should clearly be, and is, a major focus for the development agency.

Herein comes the rub. The central government department charged with the primary responsibility for increasing employment, and specifically for dealing with economic inactivity, is the Department for Work and Pensions.

DWP, however, is not one of the central government silos signed up to the Public Service Agreement target to achieve more equalised economic development between regions.

So, while it is ambitious in its drive to achieve a national employment rate of 80% (some 10 points higher than our current rate), it is not particularly minded about whether that is achieved by having a 95% rate of employment in London and the South-East with a 50% employment rate in the North, or an 80% minimum employment rate across all regions.

This is a clear example of one part of government conflicting with and undermining the success of another - a simple case of bad government - that needs sorting out.