All RDAs across England are closing by March 2012
(see transition and closure section).
With our resources reducing steadily, this page has not been recently updated and the information below may not be current.
If in doubt, please contact us directly.
Future of RDAs confirmed
July 2010
At the Budget last month the Government confirmed it would
replace RDAs with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and that
this process will begin with a White Paper to be published later in
the summer.
The White Paper will address detailed issues, such as the
mechanism for creating LEPs, how their boundaries will be decided
and the roles for local authorities and business. There is also the
question of which economic development functions currently
undertaken by the RDA Network will be led at national level in
future.
It is clear that funding available for economic development work
will be more limited in coming years given the need to tackle the
deficit.
The funding cuts for each RDA for this financial year were also
confirmed last month. The South West will receive a reduction of
around 20 per cent in its budget. The programme budget for projects
and initiatives across the region has been cut from £142,482
million to £114,686 million - a reduction of £27,796 million. This
is in addition to the £2.3 million cut in ‘back office’ costs which
also needs to be made this year.
The Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS)
confirmed that the South West is one of four regions to bear a
greater proportion of the reduction in RDA funding nationally,
relative to their original budgets.
Jane Henderson, chief executive at the South West RDA, said:
“The majority of the £28 million cut in our programme budget will
be managed by delaying existing work or reducing some of our
planned investments. As a point of principle, we will not
unilaterally break any existing contracts. We will have to review
our investments with our partners and expect that this exercise
will be completed in the next few weeks.
“Local authorities and business leaders now have the opportunity
to propose where and how LEPs should be created. We are keen to
work closely with these key partners to help them understand
functions, projects and activities, which we currently manage and
deliver, to ensure this transition is handled efficiently and for
the maximum benefit of local and regional economies."