News Yorkshire Forward On The Brink
Hundreds of local jobs in question amid spending cuts
News: Yorkshire Forward On The Brink
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The Labour Party’s legacy is being further obliterated by the Conservatives and Lib Dems as Yorkshire Forward, Yorkshire and the Humber’s regional development agency (RDA), is set to be scrapped – in its current form at least. The coalition government has confirmed Yorkshire Forward’s annual £270m budget has been reduced by £40.2m, although it isn’t targeting just Yorkshire and the Humber’s 11 year-old RDA – funds allocated to all the others are being drastically cut too.
Through the Public Bodies Bill, the government has made it clear that RDAs will ultimately be scrapped entirely, a move it says could eventually save £2.3 billion annually. Local enterprise partnerships will be created in RDAs’ wake, headed by civic leaders and local businesses. The partnerships will be divided across the country in such a way as to more accurately represent England’s economic geography, the government said.
Arguments about the rights or wrongs of the government’s decision will inevitably rumble on, but the approximately 3,400 people directly employed by RDAs will be extremely concerned about their livelihoods. And the decision doesn’t appear to be especially popular in the region: in a survey conducted by Team Yorkshire and Humber, 70.4% of people surveyed in 2009 agreed with the statement that Yorkshire Forward is making a positive difference in terms of the region’s economic development and regeneration. Only 7% disagreed, with 22.6% remaining neutral.
Yorkshire Forward employs just over 13% of RDA workers (450 in total). It is credited with bringing 60,000 jobs to Yorkshire and the Humber through projects which have assisted one in 12 of the region’s businesses and annually generated an additional £725m in tax revenue for the government. It is also argued that analysis of national figures indicates the value and efficiency of RDAs, suggesting that every £1 spent creates revenue of £4.50 to benefit regional economies.
According to Yorkshire Forward, that number increases to £6.40 in the long term. With that in mind, the government said this isn’t a malicious crusade against RDAs, but rather it is working with them to ensure the creation of local enterprise partnerships is done right. Though authority will be relocated from RDAs to local councils, regional agencies may continue on in some small way. Shadow business secretary Ken Clarke said: “In the unlikely event that some localities want something on that regional scale, they can have it, because we are going to allow local leadership to say what structure they’d like.”
But what does this mean for Yorkshire and the Humber specifically? Quite simply, it could potentially mean lots of money lost. Business Link, a staple of Yorkshire Forward which offers free advice to firms, will lose £4.5m as part of the RDAs’ budget cut. Northern Way, Marketing Leeds and Financial Leeds among others will also have funding significantly reduced. Numerous projects face an uncertain future, including Tower Works in Leeds and Bradford City Park, both of which have had funding deferred. And the job security of Yorkshire Forward’s 450 employees is obviously a major concern. Yorkshire Forward’s chairman Terry Hodgkinson said the agency is working with its partners to decide where funding will be reduced, which projects will be put on hold, and which will be discontinued altogether. “In some cases, where funds have already been committed, we will need to investigate existing contractual commitments,” Hodgkinson said. “We will look to minimise the impact on our partners through this difficult period.”
Posted on Thursday 22nd July 2010
Rebecca Shoemaker
Yorkshire Forward
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