The Tories are setting out their stall on the fraught issue of public sector spending, and Britain's mushrooming number of quangos are firmly in its sights. The ones that architects are most familiar with are Cabe, set up by New Labour in 1997, the eight regional development agencies, and most recently the Home & Communities Agency, the biggest of the lot.rnIt's easy for a shadow government to point the finger at any of the above and say "cut", but it's less straightforward to explain what it would put in their place, and if their role could be carried out more efficiently by the private sector.rnBut the Tories have spotted another anomaly, which is that Cabe, funded by two government departments, is also being paid by other quangos for its expertise. It would be reasonable, therefore, to ask if bodies such as Partnership for Schools and the Home & Communities Agency are using Cabe because they have to, or because it represents the best value for taxpayers.
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