70/02
19 July 2002
TAKING YORKSHIRE FORWARD
Yorkshire business will benefit from the £375 million Spending Review boost for Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), Economic Secretary and Yorkshire MP John Healey told local business representatives in Leeds today.
Speaking to a 200-strong audience at the conference ?Unleashing the Power of Yorkshire Business?, organized by Yorkshire Forward, Mr Healey said :
?RDAs are a cornerstone of the Government's new regional economic policy. This substantial extra money will further strengthen their role as catalysts for economic development in the regions.
?It will boost RDAs? work on driving forward economic development and regeneration in the regions. RDAs are being given considerable new influence in areas with a direct bearing on regional economic performance.
?For the first time they will be given responsibilities in the areas of transport, tourism, planning and housing. They will also work closely with the Small Business Service (SBS) and Learning and Skills Council (LSC) to pilot the regional management of services to small businesses and improvements to adult skills.
?Yorkshire and Humberside is a dynamic and productive region. I am sure businesses here will see and seize the new opportunities with their traditional acumen. Local industries and inward investment in bio-technology, digital and creative industries, are powerful drivers of economic growth, creating employment opportunities and raising the standard of life for local people.
?With extra resources and flexibility within the Single Pot funding framework, Yorkshire Forward, working with Local Learning and Skills Councils, Local Authorities, schools, colleges, and the business community, will be able to do even more to promote growth across the region.
?The agencies that Government is now giving strategic leadership, substantial funds and increasing freedom to drive the regional economic opportunities, all have bases here in Yorkshire and are all strongly business-led: Yorkshire Forward, SBS and LSCs.
?The challenge now for business is two-fold: to take advantage of new initiatives on skills, investment and ICT, but also to get involved with Yorkshire agencies to help lead and influence plans for the future.?
NOTES FOR EDITORS
1. Economic Secretary John Healey is the Minister at the Treasury responsible for policy on skills, productivity, employment and regional issues. Mr Healey is MP for Wentworth in South Yorkshire.
2. On 15 July in his Spending Review 2002 statement, Chancellor Gordon Brown announced significant increased funding for RDAs for the next three financial years. He built on the additional £185m already allocated to the RDAs for 2003-04, providing an additional £82 million in 2004-05 and £204 million in 2005-06. Taking account of the estimated reduction in Single Regeneration Budget commitments, the RDAs will have an effective increase in the resources at their disposal of £910 million by 2005-06 compared to 2002-03.
3. The eight RDAs for English regions outside London were created in 1999, and the London Development Agency established in 2000. Since 1 April 2002, the funding streams from various Government Departments (DTI, ODPM, DfES, DEFRA, BTI) have been amalgamated under the ?Single Pot? funding mechanism.
4. Because of the additional tourism promotion function, DCMS will become an RDA sponsor department from 1 April 2003. Once DCMS has completed its review of the structure of English tourism promotion, full responsibility and funding for managing regional tourism promotion will be given to the RDAs.
5. SBS and RDAs will pilot and evaluate different RDA-led approaches to achieving improved coordination of business support services at the local level and ensuring that local Business Link services promote Regional Economic Strategies, eg piloting the setting up of RDA business support boards to coordinate business support activities and piloting regional management of Business Link services in one or two regions.
6. In the light of the evaluation of these approaches and the results of the SBS drive to improve the delivery of services from Business Link operators over the next year, the Government will consider what further changes in the organisation and management of Business Link operators might be appropriate. Pilots of RDA-led approaches to coordination and management of Business Links services will commence by April 2003. A further announcement will be made on which RDAs have been selected to pilot business support boards, and which will pilot RDA management of Business Links operators.
7. As part of a drive to strengthen the regional dimension to skills, pilots will operate from April 2003 in one or two regions whereby budgets for adult learning are pooled between local LSCs and RDAs and coordinated in partnership. A review of funding for adult learning, to be completed in time for new arrangements to be introduced by April 2004, will consider how current funding arrangements can be reformed to enable RDAs to play a full and effective role in developing and implementing regional skills strategies.
8. Further information on Spending Review 2002 is available on this site. Further information about RDAs is available on the DTI website .