The Government has admitted it carried out no formal consultations on its plan to abolish England's regional development agencies but says an intention to reform economic development was included in both coalition parties' manifestos and their coalition agreement.
In a Commons written answer to Newcastle East MP Nicholas Brown, business minister Mark Prisk admitted RDA abolition was yet another major policy decision where no formal consultation was carried out, but noted the commitments in the manifestos and coalition agreement.
"No formal consultation process was therefore undertaken prior to the decision to abolish the RDAs," he said.
Asked by Mr Brown how local enterprise partnerships' functions differ from RDA functions, he said the agencies' functions were set out in Part 1, Section 4 (a-e) of the RDA Act 1998.
LEPs, however, are locally developed by business and civic leaders who are responsible for setting their own priorities.
"The partnerships' key focus is to address the barriers to local growth," he said.
In a separate answer to High Peak MP Andrew Bingham, Mr Prisk said the criteria for assessing projects under the second round of the Regional Growth Fund are the same as the first round.
They must demonstrate they:-
