UK's 'useless' quangos under fire

The BBC has a report on Quangos, there are currently 529 of them 20% of which have been set up since Labour came to power in 1997. They have a side bar of the 'most useless quangos' which includes the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, not that there is much democracy to be found in Westminster.

" Mr Lewis[author of the Essential Guide to British Quangos 2005] wants a public inquiry into regional development agencies which cost £1.8bn a year - cash he says which "appears to be almost entirely wasted"."
Now I'm sure that I've read somewhere that the setting up of the Regional Development Agencies was related to the EU, this could just be that that level of waste is an Euroland hallmark, however I haven't been able to find any proof. Just that the regions that the regional development agencies cover just happen to be exactly the same as the regions for the Euroland Parliment.