Even on Prescott's Home Turf...Money Wasted

Hull Daily Mail
STILL PAYING FOR FAILED ASSEMBLY
09:30 - 01 January 2005
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has been accused of wasting almost £2m of taxpayer's money on research related to his failed dream of a regional assembly. It means the total spend on the east Hull MP's bid to introduce regional assemblies in the north-east and Yorkshire and the Humber could have cost the public a total of £12m.

New details revealed Mr Prescott's department spent cash on a variety of regional assembly research projects.The most expensive was carried out by the University of Salford to evaluate the "operation and effectiveness of elected regional assemblies".The research cost £979,274 and came out in July 2003, 16 months before the regional referendum in the north-east took place.


Now Tories claim that despite the "no" vote in the north-east last month, and the winding down of the campaign for elected regional assemblies, some of the projects will continue to cost money as one is not due to report back until 2011.

Shadow regions secretary Bernard Jenkin said: "Labour has created countless unaccountable and unelected regional quangos but has no idea what they're actually doing."It is amazing that John Prescott needs to waste millions of pounds of taxpayers' money to tell him what he should already know."His department is out of control and heading in the wrong direction."News of the additional funds being spent will come as a fresh blow to Mr Prescott, who has already come under a barrage of criticism for the phenomenal amount the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) has spent on his regional assembly dream.

According to official figures, the cost of staging the north-east referendum is expected to be about £3.1m.Mr Prescott's office has also reportedly spent another £3.2m on an information campaign.Embarrassingly, a £25,000 advertising campaign promoting a voting date in Yorkshire was already under way in July when ministers decided to postpone the referendum across the region.

In addition, Mr Prescott's own regional campaigning cost £184,143.

John Watson, chairman of the Yorkshire Says No campaign, said: "An awful lot of money has been wasted going through this whole process. I am just glad the referendum in Yorkshire is now dead and buried, otherwise there would have been more costs to bear."

Last night, a spokesman for ODPM said: "The Government remains committed to improving economic performance and equality of life across all regions."To achieve this we will continue local government reform and an active policy to decentralise power and strengthen the regions."Research plays a key role in forming that policy."The Mail opposed plans for a Yorkshire and Humber assembly on the grounds it would be an extra level of bureaucracy that would result in decisions being taken elsewhere.news@hdmp.co.uk