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Heseltine damning of Government?s ?amateur? capabilities

Lord Heseltine asked “what was the point” in the Government inviting him to conduct his report into growth if they are not going to take heed of his recommendations.

Under questioning by the House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, Lord Heseltine said he believed the Government was ignoring his recommendations following the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.

Lord Heseltine said the Government’s current growth plan was more traditional in its centralised delivery, and that is why he had collected anecdotal evidence from the popular consciousness that an agenda did not exist.

Elsewhere in the proceedings, Lord Heseltine criticised the manner in which the Regional Development Agencies were abolished, and suggested it was a case of the baby being chucked out with the bath water.

He said: “Having created the LEPs, the Government thought it had created a significant step towards stimulating local enterprise, and local economic activity.

“In practice, when one started to look at the detail, and questions were asked about to what extent more responsibility could be moved in that direction, then the inadequacy of the capability became more clear.

“It was a patchwork quilt; some LEPs had made significant progress, others had not made any at all.”

Lord Heseltine went on to say that in order to pursue the Chancellor’s latest plans, the country needs a stronger LEP presence, and he believed the same was true of the chambers of commerce.

Comparing the UK set-up with other economies, he suggested it was amateurish and that Whitehall was operating in a dysfunctional fashion, with little cohesion between departments.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .