Sheffield City Region: LEP ‘not just a talking shop’

THE Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership needs to show the private sector it is more than a talking shop, according to chairman James Newman.

Interviewed in a new supplement focusing on the Sheffield City Region, Mr Newman calls for the creation of a “collaboration culture” to help bring inward investment to the area.

“We’ve also got to become credible as an LEP and not just be a talking shop and influence things and show we’re influencing things in order to get the support of the private sector. I think we’ve made a very positive start in a number of these areas,” he says.

In the interview with TheBusinessDesk.com editor Ian Briggs, Mr Newman describes the significant shift in the regional economic landscape driven by cuts to public spending and the demise of organsations such as Yorkshire Forward.

He argues granting South Yorkshire “objective one” status for European funding created a “grant culture” that has now been replaced with the need to make “hard decisions”.

Mr Newman also reflects on the importance of the City Region’s new enterprise zone, a series of sites linked by the M1 focused on growing the advanced manufacturing sector.

“The enterprise zone is clearly an opportunity to say we have an enterprise zone covering 10 to 15 areas of the county that can offer you x, y and z to come here and invest in the region. It clearly helps in the
rebalancing of the economy.

“But it’s important we get it right and get full government support for it.”