Public and Commercial Services Union
 Printable version
|
 E-mail this to a friend
|
Cameron comes unstuck with praise for axed agency
Cameron was speaking in a video message to a prestigious midlands business awards ceremony where Advantage West Midlands, the Regional Development Agency, had just picked up the top prize.
Saying he wanted to take the opportunity to say how much he admired “everything you all do”, he appeared keen to recognise the contribution of the public sector.
“There are three things in particular that I think make these awards so exciting,” Cameron says in his address. “The first is that they are open to public and voluntary organisations.
“For too long there’s been this idea that the only wealth creators in our economy exist in the private sector.
“That’s too simplistic. The public and voluntary sectors contribute directly to wealth creation and I’m delighted that’s being acknowledged.”
Last summer Cameron’s government announced the abolition of England’s nine Regional Development Agencies, saying they would be replaced with ‘local enterprise partnerships’ by 2012.
But in his speech to the Midlands Excellence Awards, Cameron contradicts ministers’ continuing claims that the RDAs are inefficient and do not adequately support local economies.
The prime minister said: “In celebrating midlands business excellence, these awards celebrate precisely the kinds of things that are going to get our economy back on its feet.
“You are the doers and the grafters who are going to bring the wealth, the jobs and the opportunity our country needs so badly.
“But I know it’s not enough for me to applaud from the sidelines; you want a government that will help, and that’s what we’re doing.”
An article on the Advantage WM website, reporting news of the award, quotes the agency’s chief executive Mick Laverty as saying that independent evaluation has shown that for every £1 invested by Advantage, £8.14 is generated for the region’s economy.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “Like the other RDAs, Advantage WM plays a vital role in the economy and this is exactly the sort of alternative to spending cuts that we've been talking about.
“Instead of arrogantly swinging the ideological axe, the government should be investing in the public sector to help our economy to grow.”
