Business chiefs slam regional development failings

Labour's flagship regional development agencies are not doing enough to promote enterprise, a new report has warned.

The Institute of Directors says that England’s RDAs need to do more to explain their relevance to business and commerce.

The survey finds that less than a third of companies understand the role of RDAs, and only eight per cent felt that their local RDA actually understood the needs of their business.

NOP, which polled 500 members of the IoD, found that the RDAs face "significant challenges" in proving their worth.

"With comparatively limited budgets their remits appear to be too wide and the variations in regional economic performance they attempt to counter historically long-standing," added the report.

Mike Harris, business policy adviser at the IoD, said: "Many of our regional offices have excellent relations with their respective RDAs and have collaborated on a range of very beneficial projects.

"Moreover, for some IoD members RDA funding has made a significant difference to their business’s prospects.

"However, it remains apparent from our survey that the agencies are yet to make much impression on most businesses at grassroots level."

The IoD also warned that the conditions necessary for the stimulation of economic growth in England’s regions will depend on the government "maintaining macroeconomic stability, regulating lightly and keeping taxation simple and relatively low".