West Mids reveals six LEP hopefuls
Authorities in the West Midlands have put forward bids to create six local enterprise partnerships, it has been confirmed. The Department for Communities and Local Government said that it had received 56 proposals from across the country by Monday’s deadline. Wolverhampton, Dudley and Walsall have proposed a Black Country Partnership, while Coventry and Warwickshire authorities have submitted a joint bid. Birmingham and Solihull have joined forces with with East Staffordshire, Lichfield and Tamworth.
Shropshire and Herefordshire opted to bid for The Marches partnership, and Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire submitted a proposal.
A seventh 'overarching' West Midlands LEP bid is believed to have been submitted by lobbying group Business Voice West Midlands, and backed by 33 local councils.
Monday was also the closing date for the consultation on the Regional Growth Fund, which was announced in the Budget. The department revealed that it had received 350 responses to the consultation on the fund.
The £1bn fund will provide support for projects that offer potential for sustainable economic growth and can create new private sector jobs.
Proposals for funding will be sought from private organisations and public-private partnerships, and local enterprise partnerships will have a key role to play in coordinating bids across areas and communities.
The fund has an initial lifespan of two years.
Communities secretary Eric Pickles said: 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.”
Business secretary Vince Cable added that the key to the partnerships was that they “are built from the bottom-up and will have the flexibility to determine their own agenda, rather than have it handed down to them by Whitehall”.
