England’s regional development agencies have appealed to the government not to raid their budgets to fund its £1.6bn housing package
The government said it would get £690m of the £1.57bn for the housing package from underspending in the communities department, which funds RDAs. The rest would come from the business department, the Home Office, and transport, education and energy budgets.
RDAs fear their funding could be cut to contribute to the fund. RDAs fund regeneration projects across England, and have already had their budgets slashed following an earlier housing package announced last autumn.
Deborah Cadman, chief executive of the East of England Development Agency (EEDA), who speaks on behalf of all RDAs, said: “We understand that the government has to take tough decisions, but any more cuts, on top of the £300m raided in September last year, would have a significant impact on the work we do.”
London mayor Boris Johnson denounced a possible £22m cut to the London Development Agency as “completely unacceptable”.
A spokesperson for the communities department was unable to say which budgets the funding was going to come from.
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