91Èȱ¬

The Government's decision to abolish regional development agencies like One North East has caused great consternation.

Supporters of RDAs say this is the wrong time to be cutting organisations which are intent on creating jobs.

They believe it could play a part in the private sector growth the Government's so keen on.

What then are we to make of some new figures obtained by the ?

.

There are similar figures in some other agencies. According to the Taxpayers' Alliance figures, almost three-quarters of the grants given out by the North West Development Agency (NWDA) and more than half of those doled out by Yorkshire Forward went to the public sector.

And we're not talking about small sums of money.

In the financial years 2007-8 and 2008-9 the Taxpayers' Alliance say gave grants worth £228m to public sector organisations, the £362m and £259³¾.

The figures made me do a double take. You'd expect some grants to our councils and public sector organisations but not such a large proportion.

But let's qualify this a little. Although these grants were given to "public sector" organisations, many would have eventually been passed on to the private sector.

Big grants help to run organisations like Business Link that would then have supported private companies. The agency is there as middleman as well as grant provider.

You could also argue that it matters less where the grants go to than the jobs they create.

But it will add to ammunition of those who believe New Labour's initial economic success was based purely on an unsustainable public sector boom.

That's certainly the take of the Taxpayers' Alliance.

They say the figures add to the case for their abolition, also highlighting the number of big corporations rather than small firms which have been awarded grants.

But abolition, even if the RDA will be replaced some form of economic agency, will add to the anxiety in a region like the North East.

Any replacement will surely not have the same amount of money to give out to public sector organisations.

So not only might they face direct cuts in funding from government but they'll also be losing out on grants from the likes of One North East.

It's all part of the ongoing debate about private vs public.

But is it as simple as that?

Check out our discussion on the Politics Show this week.

We assembled our own "Star Chamber" ahead of the Budget. They were Guardian commentator Peter Hetherington, IPPR North's Katie Schmuecker and businessman Ian Dormer.

It's well worth a watch. They certainly believe it is impossible to look at the public and private sectors separately - the one impacts on the other.

They certainly see tough times ahead, but also opportunities to test the Government's commitment to its pledge to rebalance the economy away from a reliance on the City of London.

could add more substance to Government rhetoric.

We'll have to make do with 48 hours more of speculative headlines though before we find out .

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• |
• Reddit
• - What's this?