My honourable friend the Minister of State for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs (Pat McFadden) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I have today laid before Parliament the annual reports and accounts for 2007-08 for the eight regional development agencies (RDAs) outside of London. Copies have been placed in the Libraries of the House.
The annual report and accounts for the London Development Agency are presented to the Mayor of London rather than to Parliament. I shall provide a copy to the House Library when these are available.
Also published today are the RDAs’ reported outputs for 2007-08. These results are evidence that the RDAs continue to play a valuable role in improving the economic performance of the English regions and, through working with their partners, the RDAs are making a real difference to the individual regional economies concerned. The figures cover the number of jobs created and safeguarded, the number of people assisted to get a job, the amount of brownfield land brought back into use, the number of businesses created, the number of businesses assisted to improve their performance, the number of people assisted in their skills development and the amount of public and private sector regeneration infrastructure investment levered, all as a result of RDA activity.
Press releases on the outputs have been issued in each region. Copies of the output results have been placed in the House Library, and are available on the website of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform at www.berr.gov.uk/regional/regional-dev-agencies/rda-performance/page46979.html.