We're in a Pickles over our future

Jun 30 2010 by Andrew Hebden, The Journal

THE Cabinet may have held a symbolic meeting in Bradford yesterday, but the announcement that followed on support for economic development in the regions was surely concocted in Whitehall.

After the promising initiatives in last week’s Budget to sweeten the bitter pill of public spending cutbacks, yesterday’s announcement fell well short of what we hoped for.

The £1 billion growth fund for the regions is big enough to make a meaningful difference. But the great fear is that the power to spend this cash appears to have been snatched away from local decision makers.

That certainly seems to be the case with the successor bodies to the regional development agencies. The proposal for what the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) would be responsible for – such as planning and housing, local transport, and business start-up support – falls well short of the joint vision put forward by the Association of North East Councils (ANEC) and the Northern Business Forum (NBF).

Having asked business what it wants from these new bodies, it seems the coalition has already made its mind up – or Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has, at least. He has won his turf war with Business Secretary Vince Cable and he’ll obliterate the RDAs with some glee.

So where now for the North East? The NBF will continue to make the case for an LEP with powers over areas such as inward investment, business support and strategic sector development. Without this, there must be a threat to the region’s pioneering efforts to remain at the forefront of developments in the low-carbon vehicles and offshore wind sectors, among other things.

It’s important, too, that the North East retains its united voice in this regard. The joint NBF-ANEC document was a real achievement; it would be a shame if individual local authorities were now to “do their own thing”, sensing that the battle for the North East proposal has been lost.

The region can ill afford to splinter just now – but with unity we might still make Mr Pickles see sense.

Andrew Hebden - andrew.hebden@ncjmedia.co.uk