Sir Ian Wrigglesworth, deputy chair of the Regional Growth Fund Advisory Panel, has criticised the government’s decision last year to do away with the government offices in the regions.

Speaking to CSW on Monday at the Liberal Democrat conference, Wrigglesworth said he had been “very disappointed with the decision to abolish regional government offices”, adding that departments are now recreating their own regional outposts to carry out the functions of the disappeared cross-departmental offices.

The establishment by individual departments of their own regional reps, he suggested, will lead to duplication of effort and administration, and regional government offices are likely eventually to be re-created. The process is already underway, he said, pointing to developments such as the creation of ‘BIS local’: a network of six offices set up around England by the business department to drive regional growth.

Sir Ian is a businessman, former MP and Liberal Democrat activist, and deputises for Tory veteran Lord Heseltine on the Advisory Panel. He spoke to CSW after a conference fringe event on the topics of localism and growth, where councillor Barbara Janke, leader of Bristol City Council, emphasised the importance of building confidence among local businesses in order to drive growth. She called on government departments to work together and support investment in infrastructure such as broadband and transport to build this confidence.

“We would like to see the government in its entirety look much more at the whole picture of growth,” she said, “because it isn’t just about jobs and businesses on their own; people will invest when they see that government is investing in that infrastructure.”

She added that government departments should consider how they can “work together to ensure that we get that concerted action that we need to make sure we achieve the full potential [or our cities]”

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Written by Suzannah Brecknell, CSW