LEP hopefuls unveiled
The East Midlands could be divided into four local enterprise partnerships (LEPs), it has been confirmed. Authorities in Leicester and Leicestershire have submitted a bid to form a partnership. A bid to form a South East Midlands organisation has also been put forward.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) could not confirm which authorities had joined the South East Midlands partnership, but reports suggested that Kettering, Corby and Northampton Borough Councils may have opted to join the Milton Keynes-led partnership instead of its traditional East Midlands neighbours.
The BIS said that it had received 56 proposals from across the country.
Communities secretary, Eric Pickles, said: These 56 local enterprise partnership proposals are just the beginning of a new radical way of delivering prosperity and rebalancing the economy.
“We are facing economic problems that need solutions from local communities. The secret to the success of local enterprise partnerships will be working on the basis of local economic geography – gone are the artificial political regions of RDAs - this will better serve the needs of local business.
“The bureaucracy of Regional Development Agencies gave local authorities little reason to engage creatively with economic issues. Local enterprise partnerships are a way of tying council and business interests together, and creating the conditions for business to thrive and prosper.”
