BRITAIN'S bosses yesterday challenged William Hague to tear up his controversial plan to abolish agencies set up to boost jobs in the North.

The Tory leader this week reaffirmed his pledge that a Conservative government would scrap the One NorthEast and Yorkshire Forward development agencies (RDAs) set up by Labour.

Mr Hague told the North-East Chamber of Commerce he would replace the RDAs in the English regions and, "instead, concentrate assistance in areas where it is needed most''.

But Digby Jones, chief executive of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), called yesterday on the Tory leader to abandon that policy.

Mr Jones gave the RDAs, particularly in ''close-knit'' areas such as the North-East and Yorkshire, a vote of confidence and called for them to take over some of the planning powers of local councils.

He said: "We would call on the Tory Party to remove from their (election) manifesto their commitment to abolish them.

''We believe we will get a better result in regional development if we bring all interested parties to the table in a constructive fashion.''

But, speaking ahead of the CBI annual conference next week, Mr Jones said he was ''yet to be convinc-ed'' about creating directly-elected regional assemblies in England, warning that could be "another layer of bureaucracy".