Who we are

England’s Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) were first launched in 1999, with the London Development Agency following in 2000.

Their mission is to spread economic prosperity and opportunity to everyone in the nine regions of England. When establishing the RDAs, the Prime Minister said he wanted to ‘bring fresh vitality to the task of economic development and social and physical regeneration in the regions’ through a business-led approach.

The RDAs do this through providing strategic direction for economic development, ensuring the needs and opportunities for every region are taken into account. They work to make lasting improvements in the economic performance of all regions and to reduce the gap in growth rates between the regions.