DEVELOPMENT agencies like SEEDA would face an uncertain future if David Davis were Prime Minister. The Tory Party leadership candidate said he was not a great fan of regional bodies.

The South East England Regional Assembly would definitely be axed by a Davis administration.

"I’m atavistically against regional assemblies," he said. "They’re going, full stop. Unappointed, inappropriate, misguided."

But Mr Davis was more ambivalent towards the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), the quango responsible for the regional economic strategy and various regeneration schemes in Kent and Medway.

Before scrapping it, Mr Davis would take soundings about the value of SEEDA to business and residents.

But he hinted that there would be a shakeup in its organisation. "SEEDA covers too big an area," he said.