Coalition ministers have given the green light to 24 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) as part of their plan to boost Britain’s moribund local economies.
The approval of the first wave of LEPs is contained in the government’s regional growth white paper, published on 28 October, which also marks the opening of the £1.4bn Regional Growth Fund to support the creation of private sector jobs in areas hit hard by public spending cuts.
LEPs will replace England’s nine regional development agencies (RDAs) and are made up of partnerships between councils and private enterprises, with the aim of creating the right conditions for local – and national - economic growth. Ministers said the 24 first wave LEPs reflected ‘sensible’ collections of councils and business leaders that would reflect sub-national economic hubs more effectively than RDAs.
The white paper outlines how the coalition will focus on three themes to deliver growth:
- Establishing dynamic LEPsto provide the ‘vision, knowledge and strategic leadership to set local priorities and empower communities to fulfil their potential’.
- Creating the right conditions for growth through a consistent and efficient framework for investment and an effective local planning and development regime
- Tackling barriers to growth that the market will not address itself and ‘supporting investment that will have a long-term impact on growth’.
Business secretary Vince Cable said many of the proposals for LEP status submitted to the government this summer ‘showed real imagination and initiative and a genuine desire to drive local economic growth’.
Communities secretary Eric Pickles said LEPs would ‘transform the economic geography of the country’ but, unlike RDAs, would be ‘underpinned by proper local accountability’.
The white paper outlines other government plans to promote regional and local growth through: the New Homes Bonus, involving matched Council Tax funding, paid to localities that build homes; possible moves to allow councils to keep the business rates they collect locally; a new system of Tax Increment Financing for regeneration projects – which would allow councils to borrow against projected increases in business rate income; and a localised planning regime.
The 24 ‘first wave’ Local Enterprise Partnerships are as follows:
- Birmingham & Solihull with E. Staffordshire, Lichfield &Tamworth
- Cheshire and Warrington
- Coast to Capital
- Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly
- Coventry & Warwickshire
- Cumbria
- Gt. Cambridge & Gt. Peterborough
- Greater Manchester
- Hertfordshire
- Kent, Greater Essex & East Sussex
- Leeds City Region
- Leicester & Leicestershire
- Lincolnshire
- Liverpool City Region
- Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby, & Derbyshire
- Oxfordshire City Region
- Sheffield City Region
- Solent
- S.E. Midlands
- Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire
- Tees Valley
- Thames Valley Berkshire
- The Marches
- West of England
