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One North East to be axed

REGIONAL development agency One North East is to be scrapped, business secretary Vince Cable has confirmed.

The move follows a written plea from local businesses and councils to set up a replacement body to give the region a strong voice in Whitehall.

Creating a “Local Enterprising Partnership” was a key promise in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition document and it is understood a similar organisation to One North East will be set up

Labour MPs claim the agency in its current form has been a success, having created or protected 160,000 jobs and helped bring a number of heavyweight international firms to the region.

Meanwhile, the government has accused it of being wasteful after it opened offices in China, Korea and Australia.

A One North East spokesman reportedly defended the move and said the offices had played a “substantial part” in attracting new business and jobs to the region and strengthening the local economy.

David Cameron attacked regional development agencies in parliament yesterday, saying: “I know that a lot of argument and discussion is going on about regional development agencies.

“The figures about how much money has been wasted, however, should be more widely shared. The East Midlands Development Agency paid more than £300,000 for offices in north America. The North West Development Agency shared an office in Newport Beach.

“One North East spent money on offices in China, Japan, Korea and Australia. The chairman of the South East England Development Agency spent £51,000 on taxis and executive cars in one year alone.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .