Insider Media Limited

The East Midlands is putting forward four proposed local enterprise partnerships (LEPs), Insider understands. Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce confirmed the two county councils in its patch have signed an agreement, as Leicestershire and Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire prepare to go solo.

Jonathan Smart, from Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce, told Insider that the region was entering “a brave new world” as the deadline day for LEP proposals arrives today.

The region’s LEPs will take over from the East Midlands Development Agency (Emda) when it becomes obsolete in 2012.

Smart said the partnership between the four councils - Nottingham City Council, Derby City Council, Notts County Council and Derbyshire County Council. - was “definitely the right thing to do”. He said: “We had more than 130 businesses sending messages of support, and an overwhelming majority of our members were in favour of the proposal.

"From the chamber’s point of view, it is definitely the best way forward. In terms of size and scale, the LEP will be a powerful force. We’ll be able to compete with the other big regions, but still have the local focus.

"From today, it’s up to the businesses and the councils to make the partnership work. It's an exciting time - we really are entering the unknown. We need to ensure the business sector is geared up to take the economy forward.”

Smart added that the LEP would be challenged with “picking up the work from Emda, but on a smaller budget”.

Elsewhere in the East Midlands, a bid for a Greater Lincolnshire partnership has also been submitted.

Councillor Martin Hill, leader of Lincolnshire County Council, said:

“In partnership with businesses we have submitted a joint proposal for a Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership. Here at the county council, we firmly support the business voice and they told us they had a firm preference for a Greater Lincolnshire LEP comprising North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire and Lincolnshire County areas.

“However, at this stage we recognise that the south Humberside authorities prefer to work together in their own LEP. But we do not envisage the LEPs as having rigid boundaries and we will always work with our neighbouring partnerships.

“Along with the council, business leaders could also see merit in joining with Rutland and with Peterborough and we also participated in useful discussion with those authorities. However, at present our most immediate neighbours believe their interests lie in other directions.”

Elsewhere in the East Midlands, authorities in Northamptonshire and Leicestershire are believed to have submitted individual bids to form LEPs, but that had not been confirmed by the time Insider went to press.