Purpose of the RDAs
England’s Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) were first launched in 1999, with the London Development Agency following in 2000.
Their mission is to spread economic prosperity and opportunity to everyone in the nine regions of England. When establishing the RDAs, the Prime Minister said he wanted to ‘bring fresh vitality to the task of economic development and social and physical regeneration in the regions’ through a business-led approach.
The RDAs do this through providing strategic direction for economic development, ensuring the needs and opportunities for every region are taken into account. They work to make lasting improvements in the economic performance of all regions and to reduce the gap in growth rates between the regions.
Under the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998, each Agency has five statutory purposes, which are:
- To further economic development and regeneration
- To promote business efficiency, investment and competitiveness
- To promote employment
- To enhance development and application of skills relevant to employment
- To contribute to sustainable development
Following a Sub-National Review of Economic Development in July 2007 the Government has proposed that RDAs will, in the future, have responsibility for integrating regional economic development alongside planning, transport and housing into a single strategy.
As part of this, the Government is looking to create, for each region, an overarching growth objective underpinned by five outcome focused performance indicators:
- GVA per hour worked, as a measure of productivity
- Employment rate, showing proportion of the working age population in work
- Regional basic, intermediate and higher level skills attainment, to show skills levels, consistent with the Government’s central target on skills
- Regional expenditure on research and development as a proportion of GVA, as a measure of innovation; and
- Regional business start–up rate, as a measure of enterprise.
