Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has unveiled a Budget which has sounded the death knell for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), but revived the levelling up agenda.

Reiterating local government’s role at the heart of economic growth, the Chancellor vowed to hand powers from the LEPs and hand them to councils.

Budget documents added: ‘The Government is minded to withdraw central government support for LEPs from April 2024.

‘DLUHC and the Department for Business and Trade will now consult on these proposals, before confirming a decision.’

The move comes more than a year after levelling up secretary Michael Gove said he was minded to scrap the bodies.

Instead, Mr Hunt announced a raft of new ‘Levelling Up Partnerships’, with £400m in investment to go to 20 areas across England. A further £200m is on offer for regeneration, £200m extra for potholes and road improvements and a further £100m for charities and community groups.

Acknowledging the Government’s stalled plans for local government finance reform, the Budget reveals plans to work with councils to expand local business rate retention, with a pledge to ‘bring a wider proposals to improve the local government finance landscape in the next Parliament’.

The chancellor claimed the Government’s success on devolution would go further, with a new wave of devolution deals to be negotiated in the coming year. Budget documents said the deals will include ‘local investment funding for areas that are committed to a mayor or directly elected leader’.

As the Office for Budget Responsibility predicted the UK would avoid a technical recession and grow by 1.8% 2024, and inflation would fall back to 2.9% by the end of the year, the chancellor revealed his plans to boost the economy – including getting people back into work.

The latest figures announced by the Office for National Statistics yesterday revealed unemployment remained at a near record low at 3.7%. The working-age population classed as economically inactive fell by 0.2% but it remained high at 21.3%.

Mr Hunt announced plans to ‘remove barriers to work’, including getting more disabled people and those on universal credit into work, and amended pension rules to make it more attractive for older workers to remain in employment. He announced 30 hours of childcare for all children over nine months in households where all adults work.

On the cost of living crisis, he extended the cap on energy costs and vowed to give low income households with pre-payment meters the same energy costs as their counterparts on direct debits.

The Budget also revealed a £60m fund for public swimming pools.

This article was originally published by The MJ (£).