LEPs don’t have ‘clout’, argues Balls
SHADOW Chancellor Ed Balls believes that local enterprise partnerships don’t have the funding or the “clout” to support their regional economies.
Speaking to an audience of young professionals from the Leeds financial and legal community, the Morley MP criticised the Government’s decision to axe regional development agencies such as Yorkshire Forward and replace them with the LEPs.
Mr Balls said that shutting down the nine English RDAs was a mistake as they provided support to key sectors of the regional economy including manufacturing and financial services.
At the speech at HSBC in Leeds, chaired by TheBusinessDesk.com’s managing director David Parkin, Mr Balls said: “I thought the regional development agency Yorkshire Forward was an important part of industry support in the region and it’s a mistake to move away from these things.”
He said that the replacement for the RDAs, local enterprise partnerships (LEPs), do not have sufficient financial support.
“The problem with the LEPs is they neither have the resource, the clout or the capacity to support the regions.”
Despite the continuing economic pressures, the Shadow Chancellor praised the strength and endurance of key parts of Yorkshire’s economy.
“I think Leeds and Yorkshire should be proud of the fact that we are leaders in financial and business services, which is an important part of our future.
“Manufacturing is important too. I worry that after the events of the last few years that we don’t put enough emphasis on the role of financial and business services,” he told the event, hosted by Martin Lunt, head of corporate banking for HSBC in Yorkshire and the North East, and Phil Sunderland, HSBC international manager.
