Road scheme on hold

The South East Development Agency (Seeda), which has played a large part in helping growth of the South-East economy by supporting businesses through the recession, has been told it must make savings.

The exact extent of the cuts to Seeda's budget are not yet known. They were announced by David Laws, chief secretary to the Treasury on Monday.

Dr Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills, has said previously that it is hard to justify the existence of Seeda, which has a budget of 107 million and employs 270 staff.

He added: "It is very difficult to see the justification of regional development agencies in the south and south-east, prosperous regions with a large private sector."

It had originally been suggested that council-led local enterprise partnerships should replace the agency.

Some people would welcome the demise of Seeda because of their lack of accountability locally.

But business supporters in West Sussex say that Seeda receives far less financial support than its other quango counterparts elsewhere in the country. They also believe that more money should be channelled its way to be invested in the region, rather than heading to northern regions.

The reason for this is that many economists believe that Britain's full recovery from the recession will be triggered from the South-East, where lack of investment will have a knock-on effect on the remainder of the country.

Seeda, defending its record, said that it had created or safeguarded more than 60,000 jobs in the south-east during the past decade. During the last year, in a restructure, it cut around 90 jobs.

Dr Cable also announced on Monday that Horsham MP Francis Maude would chair a committee to monitor efficiency savings.

Mr Maude is the new Minister for the Cabinet Office, Paymaster General, and will attend cabinet meetings.

In addition, on Monday came the news that long-awaited improvements to the A23 will be among 54 million of transport projects being deferred. These form part of the 683m of Department of Transport Savings, announced as its contribution towards the overall 6 billion savings.

Work to widen the 2.4 mile route between Handcross and Warninglid was due to have started this summer. It would have been the last section of the route between Brighton and the M23 to be upgraded.

Final approval for the widening work was delayed after a planning inquiry recommended amendments to the scheme last year.

They were subsequently accepted and included removal of junction improvements at Slaugham and closing the existing northbound and southbound sliproads there.

A new access road was to have been built to the Handcross Market Garden from an entrance off the one-way slip road from Brighton Road to the soutbound A23. Environmental work was to have begun this summer, with construction work expected to start in summer 2011 for that project.

n The end of the quango Seeda? See page 8 for our leading article.

Road scheme on hold

West Sussex feels the impact of Government's 6 billion spending cuts