Regional Government Is Half-Baked

30 Nov 2004

Anne Lee said "The SEERA meeting, at the H G Wells Centre in Woking on 29th November, brought home to us how unaccountable this Quango is. It is a half-baked idea of devolution. Votes are cast by vested interests (eg the CBI and the National Housing Federation) and various county councillors. It is chaired by a Conservative County Councillor.

"This year (04/05) the Assembly plans to spend nearly £4 million of our money. Yet in this week's debate about what level of housing should be built in the South East, in the end the Assembly could only make recommendations. The debate might have been meaningful if there were any funding for affordable housing likely to be made available - but that was not so.

"If they are to work effectively regional assemblies must get rid of vested interests. They must made democratically accountable and there must not be too many layers of government. If Regional Assemblies are to have any future we must also cut back the number of MPs at Westminster."

This website uses cookies

Like most websites, this site uses cookies. Some are required to make it work, while others are used for statistical or marketing purposes. If you choose not to allow cookies some features may not be available, such as content from other websites. Please read our Cookie Policy for more information.

Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the website to function properly.
Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us to understand how our visitors use our website.
Marketing cookies are used by third parties or publishers to display personalized advertisements. They do this by tracking visitors across websites.