Regional Agencies, aka Quangos, are costing the tax payer £360m a year to run, double the level of five years ago. The FT reports that the typical cost for each region is put at £23m for the regional development agency, £3m for the regional assembly and £14m for government offices, which act as Whitehall's representatives on issues such as education and transport. Adding in the regional cost of other state bodies, such as the Learning Skills Council and the Environment Agency, takes the annual administrative cost to £200m for each region or £1.8bn for England as a whole. £1.8bn for an extra tier of government. This seems a little excessive to me. The whole system is over engineered and complex and is not delivering value for money. Why do we want government agencies to look in to every single detail of our lives? It's creating jobs for the sake of it and we are left to pick up the bill.
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