LEPs submission deadline passes
MINISTERS have responded to growing criticism over a perceived lack of involvement from business in the formation of new local enterprise partnerships as bids for the new bodies were made from the Yorkshire region yesterday.
Yesterday marked the deadline for expressions of interest in setting up LEPs following the Government’s decision to close regional development agencies in 2012.
Ministers want LEPs to be partnerships between business and local authorities more closely aligned with economic activity rather than county and district boundaries.
Early indications are that in Yorkshire and the Humber, bids have been made by Leeds City Council in partnership with 10 other councils for the Leeds city region; and Sheffield City Council in association with other local authorities including Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley and some outside Yorkshire.
North Yorkshire County Council has teamed up with City of York Council, which is also part of the Leeds city region bid, to submit a bid.
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Hull City Council has submitted a bid in partnership with East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Scarborough Borough Council without their North Lincolnshire counterparts, despite the preference of some MPs and business leaders that their should be a Humber-wide partnership.
However, Coun Carl Minns, leader of Hull City Council, said: “We are only at the initial stage of introducing a local enterprise partnership. I would like to emphasise that a North Humber LEP does not preclude our working with other areas, whether they are in LEPs or not.
“This is particularly so in relation to the south bank of the Humber, where we will continue to offer to work on those matters of shared significance which can produce tangible results.”
North Lincolnshire Council has submitted a bid that would comprise a Humber-wide partnership.
Writing on the website of the Financial Times responding to calls by the Institute of Directors not to rush to approve all LEPs, business secretary Vince Cable and communities secretary Eric Pickles said: “Business leadership in LEPs is critical…LEPs are not about making businesses dance to an arbitrary local tune, but precisely the opposite.”
The coalition Government plans to replace the eight regional development agencies outside London, including Yorkshire Forward, with new LEPs, described in the coalition deal as “joint local authority-business bodies brought forward by local authorities themselves to promote economic development”.
“Today, our message to councils and business is simply: be radical and be ambitious. We believe the promotion of enterprise requires local solutions. Now local partnerships must prove it,” Mr Cable and Mr Pickles added.
A group of senior business and public sector figures are calling for the creation of a separate Yorkshire Enterprise Partnership to work on areas they argue would benefit from a region-wide approach, such as inward investment and tourism.
A spokesperson for the Communities and Local Government Department said it would be confirmed later today how many applicants there have been and that the department hoped the new system will be in place in September 2011.
