Insider Media Limited

The East Midlands Development Agency (Emda) has said the new local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) will face many of the same issues as the regional development agencies (RDAs) before them. Outgoing RDA Emda said new organisation will face issues regarding sustainable economic development and growth in the future.

Emda says that new research carried out by Ove Arup & Partners helps explain the complex processes involved in the delivery of the region’s infrastructure networks.

The research focuses on energy, water supply and sewerage treatment, flood defences and information communications technology/broadband.

Abby Johnson Brennan, Emda’s deputy chief executive said: “The economic downturn had a severe impact on the development sector, and has changed many of the established assumptions about how new infrastructure will be funded. This research provides a snapshot of the potential constraints on current and future developments, and considers some of the solutions.

“Going forward, RDAs will be replaced by LEPs, but we believe that many of the issues raised by this research will be highly relevant to LEPs and other partners as they plan for future economic growth and regeneration in the East Midlands.“

Commenting on the research, Nick Ebbs, chief executive of regeneration company Blueprint, said: “Significant investment in infrastructure is going to be required over the next decade if we are going to deliver on important regeneration, housing growth and economic development agendas. Many projects are currently stalled because of infrastructure challenges – think Nottingham and Leicester waterside for example.

“Whilst developers and the privatised network operators will deliver much unaided on the more challenging projects, we need to find new mechanisms to fund ‘up front’ infrastructure work. Emda’s report is an important exploration of the issues and proposes a number of options that merit serious consideration.”