D-Day for LEP bids
TODAY is decision day for the various councils and business groups around the Midlands bidding to establish new Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP), the Government’s proposed replacement for the network of Regional Development Agencies.
Submissions have to be lodged with Whitehall on Monday and so there is likely to be frenzied activity in the town halls and business chambers around the region today as last minute amendments are made to the proposal documents.
In Birmingham and Solihull proposals for a ‘Super’ LEP have been backed by leading figures in both business and politics.
The submission from Birmingham City Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council and local business groups including the Birmingham Chamber Group, is for an LEP that will establish conditions to increase economic output and business profitability and in the process, create jobs.
The partnership’s vision is for a globally competitive knowledge economy, in what is considered the natural home for Europe’s entrepreneurs and wealth creators.
The chamber group, which represents chambers in Birmingham, Solihull, Lichfield, Tamworth and Burton-upon-Trent, has said its own business needs had to be different from those championed through regional RDA Advantage West Midlands.
It said the submission would make the case for a public-private sector alliance determined to drive forward the local economy. It said a successful partnership would rely on businesses and the local authorities working together and exploiting local assets for the benefit of the whole community.
Similar arguments have been put forward in the Black Country.
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The area’s chamber of commerce was unwilling to link up with its Birmingham counterpart amid fears its own identity would be lost. The four boroughs – Walsall, Wolverhampton, Sandwell and Dudley – are now intent on going it alone. However, they have put forward similar arguments about the need to reinvigorate the economy of what was, the nation’s industrial powerhouse.
The submissions are likely to undergo rigorous scrutiny from the mandarins in Whitehall but exactly what format the new bodies will take has yet to be determined.
