The area around Banbury in five RDA’s SEEDA, AWM, EEDA, EMDA and SWRDA

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David Bailey in his Birmingham Post BusinessBlog has a very good discussion on what we all need to think about before we jump into replacing the RDA’s

After RDAs: Look before you LEP

By David Bailey on Jul 12, 10 11:10 PM in Economics

As days go by we begin to learn more about what the coalition government, now two months old, has in mind in terms of economic development across England.

Leave aside the fact that London can carry on as usual, along with Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, where there is no change to their development agencies. We’re talking of course of the English regions, or rather what replaces them.

What do we know so far?

The Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) that will replace the RDAs will, it seems, have to fund their own running costs, with LEPs bidding into a central pot of some £500 million a year (a quarter of what the RDAs had to work with).

And after Communities Secretary Eric Pickles won out in a Yes-Minister style Whitehall Turf War with Business Secretary Vince Cable, popular RDAs in The North East and West Midlands won’t after all be able to continue. They’re being scrapped, lock, stock and barrel.

As I’ve said in earlier blogs, that’s a mistake as there is much expertise in RDAs like Advantage West Midlands (AWM) which could be used to join up the work of sub-regional LEPs.

And even if a LEP’s territory actually maps that of an old RDA, sadly much of the RDAs’ former work will head back to Whitehall anyway.

…… the rest is here:

http://blogs.birminghampost.net/business/2010/07/after-rdas-look-before-you-lep.html

Should it disappear I have saved it here ……

After RDA’s look before you lep pdf

What is collaborate|2009?
A one day event for third sector organisations and their partners. An opportunity to explore ways of working more effectively together, with a focus this year on the help availalable to secure stability in the face of the economic downturn.
Sessions include:
Initiatives from Office of the Third Sector
Support from Charity Bank
Use of social media
Collaborating for funding
The work of the Regional ICT Champions

this is the third/fourth of these I have attended and they are well worth it, interesting presentations and people

http://collaborate2009.ruralnet.org.uk/