Regional Development Agencies' commitment to child care was thrown into doubt this week.

Only four of the nine RDAs turned up to the first ever meeting of RDA child care leads held last week, London Development Agency board member Sally Powell told a conference on child care and regeneration this week.

She said that trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt had personally asked RDAs to look at child care as a priority last year. However, only the South East England Development Agency, Yorkshire Forward, South West of England RDA, and the London Development Agency had attended the meeting.

Powell, who is also deputy for regeneration at Hammersmith & Fulham Council, urged conference delegates to write to those RDAs that had not turned up to ask them to look at child care.

The news follows a plea by children's minister Margaret Hodge last month for RDAs to invest in children's centres. She said she hoped the nine agencies, which are primarily charged with economic regeneration, would recognise the importance of children's centres to economic development (news, page 9, 13 May).