Will LEPs deliver growth? Vote in our State of the Region survey

THE past few months have seen some dramatic changes in the way North West economic policy will be delivered and TheBusinessDesk.com in association with law firm DLA Piper, would like your views.

Your opinions on the new Local Enterprise Partnerships – which will replace the soon-to-be-scrapped North West Development Agency, feature in a key section in our second State of the Region Survey.

The major survey will also give a barometer of views on the past year’s other major economic and political changes and detail predictions of what the future may hold.

[FORM: 38]

Last year our readers expressed stong support for the NWDA – but it like other development agencies was axed soon after the General Election – and your views on whether this will affect the North West’s credentials as a good place to do business, will make fascinating reading.

Philip Rooney, managing partner at DLA Piper’s Liverpool office, said: “LEPs should represent an important step forward. We are operating in a new economic climate and the idea of having a partnership led by the private sector which reflects the economic geography of our various sub-regions is to be applauded.

“There will be concerns about the level of funding available  – LEPs are not likely to come close to having available the level of financing which enabled the NWDA and other RDAs to invest – so there will be tough decisions to make.

“That said, LEPs also represent an opportunity to ensure that investment reflects local priorities rather than national models of delivery.  They will be able to encourage all our regional public services to be even more integrated and focus on local, sustainable economic growth.”

Your answers matter and knowing how time is precious for those running businesses, we have made the survey quick and simple – it will take you no more than three minutes to complete.

We will be running a series of stories on the survey results from each of our three regions, the North West, Yorkshire and West Midlands in the New Year and comparing the findings from the three.

In addition, we will be identifying the important issues that matter to the region’s firms and then lobbying on their behalf for the changes they want to see happen in the future, as well as comparing the results from this year’s survey to one TheBusinessDesk.com ran last year.

[FORM: 38]