NWDA defends conference spending

THE North West Development Agency has defended its spending at political party conferences after being accused of wasting taxpayer’s money.

The Warrington-based organisation was found to have been the highest spending regional agency, shelling out nearly £90,000 on attending the events.

Pressure Group The TaxPayers’ Alliance used the Freedom of Information Act to discover the spending. The body has long criticised the RDAs as an “expensive failure.”

Its figures show that the NWDA spent £67,671 on wine, food and venues at the party conferences. Some £6,400 was spent on hotel rooms in Manchester during September’s Labour Party conference.

Ben Farrugia, policy analyst at the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “This is a serious misuse of public money. RDAs were not created to buy wine and canapés
for politicians, but rather to improve regional economies.

“They have failed to do this, and instead use taxpayers’ money to win over political support. Such behaviour onlystrengthens the case for their abolition.”

The NWDA hit back arguing that it spends 92p out of every £1 it receives on key projects in the region. It said the reason for the higher-than-usual Labour conference spending was because the event was in the North West, and the agency had been asked to showcase certain projects.

A spokesperson said: “The NWDA takes communications with MPs of all political parties very seriously and is accountable to MPs and parliament on all that it does. 

“Activity at party conferences is a cost effective way of raising and contributing to debates on key issues of relevance with a large parliamentary audience. The NWDA did spend more money than the other RDAs at this year’s political party conferences.  This was because the NWDA held the additional national role as the RDA network’s Chair of Chairs during this time – a role which means that the Agency speaks on behalf of the RDA network.

“Costs were also higher this year than in previous years as the current Labour government hosted their conference in our region. This resulted in a higher than normal party conference spend for the NWDA as the agency was invited by stakeholders to respond and present on a number of specific North West initiatives.”