The UK’s conservative/liberal democrat government, which has now been in place for just over two weeks, will announce today the first measures to sort out the country’s huge public sector deficit.
Finance minister George Osborne has already confirmed what was carried in the conservative party manifesto – quangos are on the hit list. These quasi autonomous nongovernmental organizations include, to a large extent, the English regional development agencies. However, funding for the Scottish, Northern Ireland and the Welsh administrations are also likely to be heavily affected.
Pundits expect that the English RDAs, established by the previous labour government in 1999, will go out of existence within two years. Does this mean the demise of effective investment attraction and enterprise development in the UK? No – their most valuable duties will passed on to the sub regional IPAs via local authorities.
What are the expected savings? Staggering, by most international comparisons as the quangos consumer a very large portion of public expenditure. Quangos have cost the UK (actually England) £3,600 or approximately €4.000 per adult per annum of the term of the Labour government; this figure includes the 20% of adults who are umemployed, on benefits or not active in the workforce. That calculates as around £5,000 per annum for each person in employment.
More on the of this story at this link: link. England’s regional development agencies
