MLA has produced a briefing paper on the Sub-National Review and new regional strategies. This summarises the key changes set out in the Review of Sub-National Economic Development and Regeneration (SNR), the Government’s response to the consultation, and the work being taken forward by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, MLA and the other culture and sport national strategic agencies to ensure that culture is embedded in the new regional strategies.
The Government published the Review of Sub-National Economic Development and Regeneration in July 2007. It aimed to ensure that policy is managed at the right spatial levels, that there is a clarity of roles at local and regional levels and that sustainable growth is promoted by capacity building, incentives and effective accountability. It set out plans to replace regional spatial strategies and regional economic strategies with a single, integrated regional strategy, to be lead by the Regional Development Agency (RDA).
In March 2008, the consultation paper Prosperous Places: Taking Forward the Review of Sub-National Economic Development and Regeneration was published. It set out key proposals concerning elements of the SNR including the development of the new integrated regional strategies, creation of an economic assessment duty for local authorities and legislation for legal status for collaborative arrangements between local authorities on economic development. The Government published its response to the consultation in November 2008.