The £15bn spent on regional development agencies since they were set up in 1999 'has effectively been thrown away', a pressure group will assert today.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance will call on the government to scrap the regional quangos. The £2bn-plus annual saving could fund a 4p cut in the smaller companies rate of corporation tax – a decision the tax-cutting group argues would achieve the RDAs’ objectives of forming jobs, boosting regional economies and helping existing businesses.

RDAs have failed in their principal aims of increasing employment and economic growth, and reducing inequalities between regional economies, the Taxpayers’ Alliance claims in its report published today. Its analysis suggests the gap between the richest and poorest regions of England has grown in the past decade.

Financial Times