THE GRAVY-TRAIN

Below is a copy from an item on the Kentnews.co.uk website:

Seeda faces calls for more accountability POSTED: 09/12/2007 09:00:00 Pam Alexander, the 195,000-a-year chief executive of Seeda

The South East England Development Agency has been branded a costly talking shop responsible for a “chronic, systematic waste of public money”.

The quango, set up by Labour in 1999, has been under increased scrutiny after it emerged that its three-day-a-week chairman, James Braithwaite, spent more than £51,000 on taxis last year.

The political commentator and author Leo McKinstry this week launched ablistering attack on the agency, which cost the public £195 million last year.He accused Seeda of having “a scandalous contempt for the public purse”.

His attack has been followed by calls from Kent politicians for more openness and accountability at the organisation.

A Seeda spokeswoman defended the quango against the criticisms, citing a list of major economic achievements for the region.

In his diatribe, for The Spectator magazine, Mr McKinstry analysed thechairman’s official schedule for September and October and found “the predictable round of self-serving dinners and meetings, with other well-rewarded public officials”.

Mr McKinstry said the public “would have been better off” had Mr Braithwaitestayed at home and watched TV during those two months and claimed theextravagance was part of a wider pattern at Seeda.

The agency spent £600,000 last year running 10 overseas offices, with arepresentative in Germany, paid nearly £90,000 for eight months work. It also spent nearly £43,000 on sending staff to the MIPIM property trade fair on theFrench Riviera.

According to a property writer, the fair was “basically a party with loads of lobsters and champagne”.

Seeda was set up by John Prescott, when he was Deputy Prime Minister and hadresponsibility for the regions, to drive economic development in the South East.

The region encompasses 19 county and unitary authorities and 55 districts,stretching in an arc around London, from Thanet in the south east to the NewForest in the south west and to Aylesbury Vale and Milton Keynes in the northwest. Its headquarters is at Guildford, Surrey.

According to its website, Seeda’s aim “is to create a prosperous, dynamic andinspirational region by helping businesses compete more effectively, training ahighly skilled workforce, supporting and enabling our communities, whilesafeguarding our natural resources and cherishing our rich cultural heritage.

“Seeda aims to be a catalyst for change within the South East, working withpartner organizations – businesses, education at all levels, local authorities,Government agencies, voluntary and community organisations and many others – toproduce clearly recognisable results.”

But Seeda serves no genuine economic purpose, said Mr McKinstry.

Instead, he said the majority of the £2.3 billion annual budget of all eightregional development agencies was spent on marketing, seminars, internal jobcreation, monitoring, conferences and action plans – rendering them “costlytalking shops”.

He said an analysis of a series of Seeda documents exposed a “mind-boggling”amount of red tape, bureaucracy and political correctness at the agency.

Examples included meetings where items for discussion included ‘the Culture andSport Toolkit for Local Area Agreements’, the ‘Slough Skills Strategy Summit’,sponsorship of the ‘European Business and Innovation Centres Network AnnualCongress’ and support for the ‘South East Women’s Ambassadors Network andWomen’s Enterprise Advocates programme’.

Mr McKinstry claimed the bureaucracy at Seeda was “now out of control”, quotingan agency officer as saying there was “a proliferation of regional partnershipsand strategies and activity plans” that had created the need “to simplify andavoid overlap and make matters clearer to the customer”.

But he warned: “There is no sign this will happen. In the true style of today’spenpushers, Seeda has decided that the way forward is another action plan forthe region. Meanwhile, its burden on the taxpayer continues… while the size ofits paper-shuffling workforce has increased from 342 employees to 370.”

Seeda, which will assume more powers following the Government’s winding down ofthe South East’s regional assembly, is “a bloated arm of the useless statemachine”, said Mr McKinstry. It is “not an engine for business growth”.

If regional development agencies were as brilliant as they claimed, he said, whythen is Britain facing major problems with skills shortages, unemployment andpublic infrastructure?

“As a downturn now grips our economy, the regional development agencies haveproved their only skill lies in wasting our money,” concluded Mr McKinstry.

Paul Carter, the leader of Kent County Council, said KCC had a very importantrelationship with Seeda and they worked together closely on a range of projectsimportant to the economic regeneration and development of Kent.

But he warned that accountability for public money was “critical” to thedemocratic process.

Cllr Carter said: “It is important that Seeda and other similar organisationsthat spend public money are more directly accountable to the public.”

Tory backbencher Roger Gale, the MP for North Thanet, told Kent on Sunday he sawSeeda as part of a “clandestine drive towards regionalisation”.

The region now has its own minister, Jonathan Shaw, who is MP for Chatham andAylesford.

Mr Gale said: “The question has to be asked, how many tiers of government do wereally need and who delivers services most efficiently? I would say Kent CountyCouncil.

“Seeda has considerable sums of money at its disposal – in contrast to KCC whichhas a large budget that is increasingly ‘ring-fenced’ by central Government –and while it is dishing out largesse I naturally want Kent to benefit as much as possible.

“I am not, though, convinced that the value-for-money monitoring is effective.Seeda covers too big an area – which makes good governance and management difficult.”

Greg Clark, the Tory MP for Tunbridge Wells and a shadow minister, said thecountry had a range of unnecessary quangos and agencies.

He said: “Rather than a new super-quango as planned, the Government shouldinstead devolve power and funding to local councils and local people.”

Last week, the Taxpayers’ Alliance campaign group attacked Seeda over itsspending on expenses and said: “The regional development agencies areunaccountable and unelected and their staff seem to be happy to spend taxpayers’money like there’s no tomorrow.

“The waste and irresponsible spending in these bodies must be urgently broughtunder control and the culprits who have been living the high life at our expenseshould be held responsible.”

Kent on Sunday asked Seeda to respond to Mr McKinstry’s broadside.

A spokeswoman said that between April 1999 and November 2007, the agency had“created and safeguarded” 46,509 jobs, “created or attracted” 5,712 newbusinesses and assisted 13,534 people in getting a job. She said a further102,830 people had benefited from training opportunities.

She said Seeda has achieved £242m of private sector funding “levered to benefitdeprived areas in the region”. Seeda had also “achieved the output” of £555minvested in urban and rural regeneration projects.

In Kent and Medway, she cited Chatham Maritime – “Seeda’s flagship site in theThames Gateway” – with thousands of new homes, 3,500 new jobs, Dickens World, amultiplex cinema and a new hotel; the Rochester Riverside site which has landcleared for “a stunning regeneration project”; the universities at Medway, towhich Seeda had contributed more than £8m.

The spokeswoman said some Kent coalfields had been transformed into businesscentres and country parks – Chislet and Betteshanger collieries – with plansadvanced for more work at Tilmanstone and Snowdown collieries.

She gave further examples of renewal and regeneration projects at Margate andAshford, and plans to transform coastal towns in the South East.

The spokeswoman said Seeda was responsible for bringing the Tour de France tothe South East, which she said generated £37m for the local economy.