Today I asked the Government about the bonfire of the quangos, and how we can get better value for money for hardworking taxpayers in Harlow.
The first step will be scrapping the East of England Development Agency. Answering a Commons Question that I asked earlier this year, the Government revealed that its Chief Executive earns more than the Prime Minister. With a public debt of £900 billion, how can we justify this?
Businesses do better with lower taxes, and less regulation. If they need advice or support, our Essex FSB or Chambers of Commerce can provide this service. Taking these tough decisions won't be popular with everyone, but ultimately it will be good for jobs in Harlow, and will get our economy moving again.
The full Hansard exchange is below:
Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con): Does my right hon. Friend agree that hard-working taxpayers in my constituency will be glad that their taxes will no longer subsidise regional bureaucrats and quangos in the east of England? Does he also agree that that work could be done much better by local federations of small businesses and chambers of commerce, and that the new local enterprise partnerships should be lean and mean?
Mr Maude: I am confident that they will be, because they will be under much closer local control. Local business organisations will contribute to them and local authorities, which are of course democratically accountable, will influence them. The fact is that regional development agencies did not contribute to narrowing the regional imbalances in our economy. In fact, those imbalances got worse and not better when the agencies existed over the lifetime of the previous Labour Government. This Government believes that support for local and regional businesses that is focused more locally and that is more locally accountable is likely to deliver greater success.
by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com
I, and most people I know, are delighted that the government is having a bonfire of the Quangos.
ReplyDeleteThese undemocratic, snout in the trough organisations run by fat cats achieve nothing, produce mountains of unnecessary regulations and bureaucracy, interfere in our lives and privacy with no democratic mandate or ethical right to do so and squander billions of taxpayers' hard earned pay.
Who but Labour could dream up such crazy names as that of the 2020 Vision Partnership, nicknamed The Quango and Crazy Vision of the Promised Land? Who but Labour could give such an undemocratic dictatorship power over our lives?
My one criticism of the bonfire of the quangos is that it doesn't go far enough. Please scrap the lot of them!