ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

The northern regional development agencies have emerged as key players in driving home the deputy prime minister's agenda to transform northern England.

The Northern Way strategy, unveiled at simultaneous announcements by ODPM ministers in Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle on Monday, was the brainchild of RDAs Yorkshire Forward, One North East and the North-west Development Agency.

In a letter in January, the three bodies presented their proposals to coordinate activity in the North to civil servants in the ODPM, Treasury and Department of Trade and Industry. It concentrated on three areas:

• to analyse the present activities of bodies such as regional housing boards and regional economic strategies
  
• to examine how individual projects and strategies could be linked across urban regeneration companies and the housing market renewal pathfinders
  
• to outline what actions could be taken as a result.

This brief has been given the green light. It will now be explored by a taskforce led on an interim basis by One North East's chair Margaret Fay and a supporting project team, headed by Alan Clark, chief executive of One North East.

The taskforce will produce an interim report in spring and a final version in July, in time to inform this summer's comprehensive spending review.

Tom Riordan, director of strategy at Yorkshire Forward, said: "The core aim is how to lose the Whitehall micro-management culture and replace it with effective delivery mechanisms on the ground. There is an appetite for this in the North like there has never been before.

"The RDAs are now ready to start making a difference, as we are working much more closely with local government and regional assemblies."

The three northern government offices, the regional housing boards, regional assemblies, the nine housing market renewal pathfinders and the five core cities – Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield and Leeds – will also be in the taskforce.

A source at the North-east regional assembly said: "The shift by RDAs to look more at the social policy side of things is a natural stage of their progression in regenerating run-down areas with high-profile business projects."