England's doomed regional development agencies have hit back at claims they are wasteful, costly to run and failing to help regional economies by citing a series of studies which showed their capabilities.
Government MPs have lined up to make a series of statements knocking the RDAs in recent days with Stourbridge MP Margot James saying Conservative research showed they were spending a third of their budget on administration and Shipley MP Philip Davies saying it was unacceptable for unelected organisations spending £300m of public money.
The Agencies, however, are obviously intending to go down fighting.
In a statement by lead RDA chairman Sir Harry Studholme, the agencies cited National Audit Office studies showing they made a real difference to their regions and pointing out the latest report is likely to declare they are performing strongly or to a good standard.
"RDAs' responsibility is clear: to support and help government deliver their objectives," said Sir Harry.
"We accept change is coming and we are ready for it, especially considering the limited funding likely to be available for economic development in the next few years. However, discussions about our future have not reduced our passion for working to create stronger, more sustainable and balanced economies in each part of the country. Together, our challenge is to ensure that England can remain internationally competitive in future, particularly in key sectors such as advanced manufacturing and low carbon technologies. It is vital that our record in recent years is judged fairly and accurately, to best inform a new way forward in the difficult times ahead."
They cited the 2009 Treasury study which found they were among the 25% most efficient government departments.
Sir Harry said the forthcoming NAO report will demonstrate they spend around 10% of their single programme funding on administration and the figure is dropping and cited a Price Waterhouse Coopers report last year.
"Based on this independent analysis, and with a conservative estimate, RDAs have contributed at least £38bn towards the economic development of England's regions during that period," said Sir Harry.
