Live reaction blog: Bonfire of the quangos

This morning, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude (pictured left) announced details of the quangos that will be abolished, merged, overhauled or retained. You can read about the announcement here and here. Follow our live coverage of the sector's reaction to the news below. CLICK REFRESH TO UPDATE.

13.39 It has also emerged that the Youth Justice Board is to be scrapped. It will cease to be a non-departmental public body and its functions will be transferred to the the Ministry of Justice. Frances Done, chair of the Youth Justice Board, said: “I am obviously disappointed by Ministers’ decision to include the Youth Justice Board in the list of arms length bodies to be abolished. However, I do welcome the Government’s acknowledgement of the Youth Justice Board’s success in overseeing the youth justice system and will work with Government to transfer our functions to the Ministry of Justice. The Youth Justice Board has profoundly changed the landscape of youth justice."

13:28 National Housing Federation assistant director Helen Williams said: "The Federation has consistently argued for an independent regulatory function to support the sector in delivering affordable housing and related services. Our experience with the Housing Corporation shows that when regulation rests with an investment agency it can be unduly influenced by investment considerations and policy passporting. So, we will continue to press for arrangements within the HCA to ensure against this. We are encouraged that the Government recognises the value of independent financial regulation and we are in continuing discussions with CLG about how this can be maintained under the new arrangements."

12.35 The Cabinet Office list reveals that the future of design watchdog the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe) is still under review. Roger Hepher, head of planning and regeneration at Savills, says: "I welcome the fact that Cabe appears likely to survive. The Government is committed to promoting high design standards, and Cabe has proved its effectiveness in this arena. The review is likely to involve some slimming down, and, as part of this, I would like to see Cabe return to its core function of design review - providing practical advice to local authorities and developers on how buildings and master plans can be made better, and filtering out those schemes that aren't up to scratch."

12.29 Maude's list says that the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation is to be abolished and its functions devolved to local government or other London bodies (presumably this could mean the Mayoral Development Corporation that Boris Johnson wants to set up to handle the Olympic legacy). LTGDC chair Bob Lane says: "LTGDC was created as a limited life agency to lay the foundations for east London's sustained regeneration. East London has come a long way since we were set up and we are proud of our achievements to date. We expect to continue working on our key projects until 2013 while we organise a phased hand over to succession bodies to ensure successful arrangements are in place to maintain the continued regeneration of east London."

12.26 Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of umbrella body the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, has responded to news that third sector support body Capacitybuilders is to be abolished. He said: "I would like to thank the board and staff of Capacitybuilders for all their work in strengthening the sector. It will be important that the Government ensures frontline organisations continue to get the support they need, as many of them face major challenges."

12.23 British Waterways has welcomed the Government's announcement that it is to be turned into a new charitable body. British Waterways chairman Tony Hales said that the move marked an "exciting new chapter" in the history of Britain's waterways: “This is excellent news and something we have been urging all political parties to support since last year.”

12.21 Sir Bob Kerslake, chief executive of the Homes & Communities Agency, which is to be retained, has responded to news that the quango will take over the economic regulatory functions of the Tenants Services Authority, which is being axed. He said: "There are valuable synergies between the investment and economic regulatory functions and we have been given an opportunity to harness these. However, we recognise that this new regulatory role will need to be run as a distinct function of the HCA, within the context of a smaller but more streamlined agency."

New attack on quangos

Quangos have come under renewed attack. A new study by the Local Government Association says that quangos give local people little say over what they do and are failing to provide value for money for the taxpayer.

The LGA used a traffic light-style scoring system to rate quangos on value for money, accountability and openness. According to the LGA, a red rating means that there is a serious problem, amber means there is cause for concern, while green means satisfactory. 

Here's how the report rated some quangos which have physical regeneration, economic development or community renewal-related responsibilities:

Quango	Value for money	Account-ability	Open-ness
Environment Agency	AMBER	AMBER	GREEN
Equality & Human Rights Commission	RED	RED	GREEN
Homes & Communities Agency	GREEN	RED	GREEN
Learning & Skills Council	RED	AMBER	GREEN
Regional development agencies	RED	AMBER	GREEN
Tenant Services Authority	AMBER	AMBER	AMBER

HTML Tables

The Telegraph has already seized upon the findings of the report. But I'm slightly puzzled as to how the report's authors arrived at some of the ratings. In particular, I wonder why the report authors have awarded the RDAs a red rating for value for money. An analysis of the RDAs' impact published earlier this year by PricewaterhouseCoopers concluded that there is reasonable evidence that all RDAs have generated regional economic benefits which exceed their costs.

And it's no surprise, given the origin of the report, that local government "scores green on all three principles of value for money, accountability and openness".

The LGA's original press release on the report said that it had been "peer-reviewed" by the New Local Government Network. But interestingly, we have since received a clarification email from the NLGN, saying that while it had been asked to comment on the research, "this does not amount to peer-reviewing, and we cannot endorse its findings".