Accountability and Delivery

Well, I think first of all the LDA is accountable, highly accountable, both in statutory terms and a number of very practical ways as well. It's accountable to the Mayor. The Mayor appoints the Board and sets its guidelines, approves its budget and approves its strategy. Of course, the Mayor is in turn accountable to Londoners.

But one of the features of the LDA strategy, which distinguishes it from other RDA strategies, is the emphasis it puts on partnership working. In the key Economic Development Strategy which we published in July, we actually do have a charter for London, with 16 key organisations with which we are committed to work - and they are actually committed to work with us. On page eight of that strategy you can see the organisations have signed up for it and I think that's going to be particularly important for the future accountability of the LDA. It can only achieve any substantial part of its economic development objectives and ambitions by working in partnership with other major stakeholders in London, whether they are governmental or non-governmental, and, in that respect, I do think that that actually sets us apart from the other RDAs. It makes us more accountable than it would be in the regional government framework in which we operate, but also I think to the major stakeholders in the capital.
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