Partner Article

LEPs: The national picture

It’s well over a year since George Osbourne originally announced that 24 Local Enterprise Partnerships would be established across the country.

Developed as a remedy to the over-centralisation of power, and the perceived expense, and bureaucracy of regional development agencies, the LEPs are now beginning to take shape.

A total of 38 have now been approved; some still in an embryonic stage, while others have already made positive gains for their regions.

Speaking to Bdaily, Alex Ehmann, head of parliamentary and regulatory affairs at the Institute of Directors, acknowledged that it would take time for the LEPs to find their feet.

He said: “Our thoughts when the LEPs first came to fruition were that roughly a third would be outstanding, and make really good progress, a third would be poor, and the rest would be OK.

“The jury is still out, although I think we need to see some really succeed and achieve progress, and some to fall by the wayside.

“I imagine those LEPs will be amalgamated into more successful ones. We need to see the really inspiring LEPs come through.”

Given their relative infancy, perhaps a certain level of apprehension is to be expected among the business community.

However, in looking at some of the functioning LEPs across the country, it seems there is potential for these bodies to achieve positive work.

For example, late last year, Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership organised an event where banks came face-to-face with SMEs in a bid to improve the flow of lending.

The event was successful in giving a voice to small businesses to allow them to express their needs to banks. Brian Colquhoun, regional director of Yorkshire Bank, noted that it was important for banks to work harder with local business to create a workable structure for lending.

Elsewhere, Leeds City Region, a Local Enterprise Partnership is spear heading a bid for the Government’s Green Investment Bank.

And just this week New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership has submitted a bid for £15m of government money to support a rural enterprise project that hopes to create 700 jobs.

So the question now, is how can the LEPs be made most effective; will this require government to devolve further powers and resources?

Andrew Carter, Director of Policy and Research at Centre for Cities suggests that definition of some LEPs is needed, while those that are established are equipped with the tools to “get on with the job.”

He said: “One of our biggest concerns is that the spatial geography of some LEPs does not match the economic and political geography, creating real barriers to effective influence over local economies.”

Lack of funding for the LEPs however means they will need to be focused and creative in looking for returns on their work.

Last week’s report from IPPR North: Beyond bricks and mortar boards: universities and the future of regional economic development, recommended that LEPs make best use of the universities in their regions.

The prominence of universities on a global stage was highlighted as a resource on which the LEPs should capitalise; utilising their capacity for international recognition, to the benefit of the region.

Mr Ehmann added: “It seems a shame that when they have got down to business, they seem to have followed government initiative after initiative, and few have used their potential to really be creative.

“We will work to be a constructive part of the LEPs, as that’s what we’ve got. There’s no other body in town, so we have to engage in what they are doing, to make it work.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .