uk s useless quangos under fire the uk has 529 quangos financed with billions of pounds of taxpayers cash many of which are useless or duplicate each other s efforts a report claims essential guide to british quangos 2005 author dan lewis said at least 111 of the appointed bodies had been set up since labour won power in 1997 he urged a limit on the number of quangos that could be set up by any individual government department tories and lib dems welcomed the report and called for a slimming down conservative deregulation spokesman john redwood said the research endorses our policy of destroying unwanted and unnecessary quangos and slimming down the rest a conservative government will axe 162 quangos as part of its drive for more efficient and more accountable government lib dem spokesman ed davey meanwhile said instead of the bonfire of quangos new labour had promised there had been an explosion of them for over two decades under both tory and labour governments these unaccountable agencies have mushroomed liberal democrats would abolish many merge others and make any that remain properly accountable labour representatives were unavailable for comment the quango guide follows last year s governmentcommissioned gershon report which recommended significant cuts in bureaucracy across the public sector mr lewis wants a public inquiry into regional development agencies which cost 18bn a year cash he says which appears to be almost entirely wasted as well as a departmental limit on quangos he also wants a statutory fiveyear limit on any such body with executive powers he also listed what he dubbed the nine most useless quangos they were the british potato council the milk development council the energy savings trust agricultural wages committees the wine standards board the westminster foundation for democracy the football licensing authority investors in people uk and the economic and social research council mr lewis branded the existence of the 60employee potato council set up in 1997 to research and promote overseas potato markets surprising he said the 80m spent annually on the energy savings trust which promotes renewable energy would be better spent on eight million boiler jackets for british homes and he argued it was absurd to charge farmers for agricultural wages committees which set working and wage standards in the industry when many were prepared to take advantage of immigrant labour prepared to work for 1 an hour if a football team can afford to pay 27m for wayne rooney why should the taxpayer not all of whom like football be forced to fund the football licensing authority to the tune of over 11m a year mr lewis asked the report is published by the efficiency in government unit a joint effort by right of centre think tanks the economic research council and the centre for policy studies it says before a new public body is set up an assessment should be made whether its proposed role is already carried