- guardian.co.uk, Thursday November 11 2004 02.04 GMT
Yesterday the prime minister was forced to come to the defence of the bodies, which are being given expanded powers over issues such as new house building, after a Tory attack on their cost and lack of democracy.
Pressed by Michael Howard at prime minister's questions to dismantle the eight assemblies, Tony Blair insisted that they had a valuable role.
But Tories are squaring up for a battle with ministers over the role of non-elected assemblies in pushing plans for hundreds of thousands of new homes in the south and the east of England. The Tory leader said they were wasting millions of pounds and commanded no popular support.
Taunted about the rejection of John Prescott's north-east plans, Mr Blair hinted that the government might push for more US-style elected mayors as an alternative to full-blown regional government. Other measures to strengthen "new localism" are also on the cards.
The deputy prime minister hoped that the assemblies would eventually be transformed into directly elected bodies, but with plans for referendums in the north-west and Yorkshire now shelved, the government accepts this is unlikely to happen.
Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, leader of Kent county council and chairman of the Local Government Association, was predicting yesterday that John Prescott's regional project was heading for the rocks. He is one of several Tories in the south-east considering leaving the Guildford-based south-east regional assembly. Part of their protest surrounds new housing targets imposed by Mr Prescott.
But Keith Mitchell, the Tory leader of Oxfordshire, who chairs the planning committee of the south-east assembly, said deeper issues were at play.
For the moment, Mr Prescott's Office of the Deputy Prime Minister insists that the regional agenda is still on track.
