Of that system,The aim was to inprove the coordination between the regional offices of
Whitehall departments to meet the demand for a single point of contact and to simphfy
the government machine and improve value for money.Mawson and Spencer ๖1997,pp.
81-3,Rhodes 2000a vol. 2,ch. 12) conclude that the decision to set up GO was’a radical
departure from the centralized and compartmentalized traditions of the civil service.
They have led to greater co-ordination in the regions. Although much remains to be
done in developing the skills of civil servants in networking partnership development
none the less GOs are a key mechanism for developing holistic governance.Potenfially,
they are also the building blocks of a devolved democratically elected regional structure
but their misfortune was to be created by the Conservative government and abandoned
by the Labour government which favoured Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) to
fuel regional economic regeneration.The RDAs both supplanted,and in the eyes of some
undermined,GOs when they were on the verge of success.