One NorthEast defends expenses

One NorthEast defends expenses including a £25,000 taxi and train bill
Dec 2 2007



by Eleanor Gregson, Sunday Sun


BIG spenders at a North body that promotes the region have been forced to defend a £25,000 taxi and train bill and expensive foreign junkets . . . paid for by taxpayers.

The Sunday Sun asked regional development agency One NorthEast to explain the expenses racked up by the organisation’s bosses.

They include almost £1m cost of maintaining offices in Australia, China, Japan and Korea.

The figures were revealed in documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by MP Norman Baker, Cabinet Office spokesman for the LibDems. He accused agencies like One NorthEast of being “cavalier with taxpayers’ money”.

The agency shelled out £5450 for a business-class seat to Chicago last year and within a month had paid for 15 more air tickets which included flights to Shanghai, Tokyo and Australia at a combined cost of almost £10,000.

The documents also reveal that the agency, who run northeast england, spent more than £108,000 in the last year on hosting just four events.


Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, which campaigns for lower taxes, said the agency is getting away with “wasting” taxpayers’ money as it is an un-elected body.


He said: “It is disgusting that people’s hard-earned taxes are being wasted on foreign junkets. One NorthEast is unaccountable and unelected and its staff are getting away with using taxpayers’ money to jet round the world business class.


“This waste has got to be brought under control and the culprits who have been living the high life at our expense should be cleared out. These people are wasting our money and undermining our democracy.”


But chief executive of One NorthEast Alan Clarke said the expenses are justified as new businesses have come to the region as a result of the agency’s work in London and overseas.


He said: “It is important to put in context what the region gains from all this. That is the point the public will be interested in.


“In 2006 and 2007, the time period that these figures relate to, we have helped attract 44 of the 64 companies that have moved to the North East, securing nearly 2000 new jobs.


“We do have a policy that if the flight is over five or six hours officers can go business class when they are on agency business. In relation to the flight to Chicago there were various issues that needed to be discussed at short notice.”


He said work at the Chicago office helped secure a multi- million pound investment.