Archived Regional Development Agency information
In accordance with government policy, all Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) closed on 31 March 2012 and were abolished on 1 July 2012.
Prior to this, RDAs transferred a range of assets, liabilities, functions and activities - including ongoing project responsibilities - to other public sector bodies. This includes a portfolio of land and property assets and liabilities transferred to the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA). Links for other key programmes transferred by the RDAs are included on the Regional Support page.
The BIS web pages on RDAs, explaining how they were funded, how their Boards were structured etc, can be found on The National Archive website. See:
• England’s Regional Development Agencies
• Regional Development Agency closure
Each RDA had its own corporate website. For access to these see index of regional government websites held by the National Archives. (Please note that none of these sites is live or up to date.)
RDAs also transferred legacy economic information to local partners who have made it available through the following sites:
Advantage West Midlands – West Midlands Regional Observatory transferred to Marketing Birmingham and access to the research is available via the Business Birmingham web site.
East of England Development Agency - East of England Observatory became Insight East, maintained by Essex County Council and the University of Essex
East Midlands Development Agency - the emda Knowledge Bank, containing a suite of Legacy Handbooks, was established in conjunction with Nottingham Trent University
Northwest Development Agency - NWDA’s two legacy documents are available via its archived website (the second document containing links to further information sources):
Business, People & Places: Learning from the NWDA’s Experience
Business, People & Places: The Record of NWDA Activity and Assets
One North East - ONE’s legacy documents are available through the Association of North East Councils (ANEC) and the One North East Legacy websites
South East England Development Agency - SEEDA’s Economic Research archive will be made available on the website of South East England Councils (SEEC)
South West RDA - SWRDA’s legacy documents are available through the University of Bristol (Research & Enterprise Development) website
Yorkshire Forward - The Yorkshire Forward Chief Economist Unit moved to become the Regional Economic Intelligence Unit at Leeds City Council, with economic information and intelligence.
Other information:
This report summarises what BIS learnt from the RDA closure programme and may help others going through a similar transition.
