GBSLEP says it is right to be ‘held properly accountable for spending’

Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) has told TheBusinessDesk.com it fully supports the recommendations of a government report critiquing the country’s 38 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).

The Public Accounts Committee Community report published earlier this month, was part of a Parliament Select Committee progress review of how the LEPs in England have spent billions of pounds of Growth Deal money.

It cast doubt on how effective the spending was and concluded that LEPs across the country had underspent by £1.1bn in three years.

Its findings show that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – the Government department responsible for the funding which LEPs manage – did not know how effective the £12bn of funding had been for local economic growth.

It also said that a considerable underspend was a sign that capital projects were not coming through quickly enough. In total, LEPs underspent their Local Growth Fund allocations by a total of more than £1.1bn in the three years to the end of 2017-18.

The report said that “rapid lessons need to be learnt to help shape funding economic growth post the EU”.

In response the GBSLEP said: “In our role of managing and directing public funds to support sustainable local economic growth it is right that we, along with all LEPs across the country, are held properly accountable for spending.

“In July 2018, the Government’s ‘Strengthened Local Enterprise Partnerships’ provided a touchstone for LEPs to learn from best practice across the wider LEP community, and similar organisations from the public and private sectors, in order that they can better fulfil their mission to drive local economic growth, while becoming even more transparent and accountable to local and national stakeholders.

“We are already delivering against the conclusions of this report and continue to push forward on our commitments to implement further improvements.”

The 38 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in England have so far been allocated £9.1bn through Growth Deals to drive economic growth in their local areas, with another £3bn allocated via other means.

The committee said the ministry’s decision not to evaluate the Local Growth Fund meant it had no understanding of what impact spending through LEPs had on local economic growth.

It added that the LEPs had also continued to underspend their local growth funding allocations every year since 2015-16, calling into question their capacity to deliver the complex projects they said were critical to economic growth in their areas.

“Our £186m Growth Programme spent 127% of its budget in the last financial year and supported 36 projects,” said the GBSLEP, which was established in 2011. “This was the result of close working with our delivery partners to secure both timely spend but, more importantly, realising substantial economic benefits for the businesses and residents of the GBSLEP area.”

It said the projects receiving funding will support the creation of 1,442 jobs; will improve journey time reliability both with public transport and cycling; help our young people into employment and create a breadth of new opportunities for local businesses and residents.

As well as supporting projects around the region such as the Burton Town regeneration scheme, one of the GBSLEP’s major programmes is the Birmingham City Centre Enterprise Zone, comprising 26 sites across the city centre covering 68 hectares in seven clusters at Westside (including Paradise and Arena Central), Snow Hill District, Eastside, Southern Gateway, Digbeth Creative Quarter, Birmingham Science Park Aston and the Jewellery Quarter.

“All of this helps the LEP play its part in the economic renaissance being experienced by our region,” it added. “In real terms, the economy grew by 20% between 2010 and 2017 – with Greater Birmingham and Solihull the fastest growing Core City LEP area during this period.

“Of course, we can always achieve more with greater resources and it was heartening to note that the Public Accounts Committee were keen to stress that LEPs would benefit from additional capacity to enable them to deliver improved outcomes and provide more robust monitoring of the projects that they have funded.”

As well as using the resources it has more efficiently, the GBSLEP says that it recognises the importance for diversity in its leadership and the need for further work on ensuring its board is reflective of the city-regions diverse population.

“We are fully committed to hitting the Government gender diversity target by 2020,” it said.

“Additionally, our work on reviewing our Board composition will go beyond targeting gender alone, and we hope that our future Board recruitment will attract a broad set of individuals from all backgrounds with a wide set of skills and experience.”

The GBSLEP also said that “as one of the trailblazer regions for the Local Industrial Strategy”, it would continue to work closely with our neighbouring LEPs, the West Midlands Combined Authority, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in implementing the recently published Local Industrial Strategy for the West Midlands.

“The Strategy was designed with the principles of inclusive economic growth at its heart and the West Midlands aims to continue its growth and success while ensuring a balanced economy that delivers prosperity across our region,” said the statement.

“GBSLEP will continue to play a key role at the centre of this Strategy to ensure that economic growth benefits everyone who lives and works in our city-region.”

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