We didn't submit a LEP proposal, says BV West Midlands
Amid the LEP chaos which reigns across the region, Business Voice West Midlands has announced it “did not submit a bid to form a LEP”. Following last week’s result – in which Business Voice WM’s bid for an 'overarching LEP mechanism' was not named among the successful proposals – executive director James Watkins has told Insider that the group "had not intended to submit a conventional LEP proposal".
However, Watkins said the organisation is now working with government officials to develop its 'over-arching mechanism' across the country.
“We have received a letter from the business minister Mark Prisk and the local government minister Greg Clark, to inform us that civil servants from both departments would be working with us to ascertain whether our proposed mechanism could become a reality.
“Business Voice WM did not put in a bid to form a local enterprise partnership, and the government did not consider the mechanism that we put forward in the same way that it did the LEP proposals.”
Watkins said the LEPs which have been given the green light would need to work together and would benefit from an overarching body.
“This is especially the case in the West Midlands,” said Watkins. “With the automotive and aerospace supply chains so prominent, we need to make sure there is co-ordination between the LEPs.”
On Thursday, it was announced that LEP proposals from Birmingham and Solihull, Coventry and Warwickshire, Stoke and Staffordshire and The Marches had all been accepted.
Bids from the Black Country and Worcestershire and districts were rejected.
Had the organisation been accepted with its 'overarching mechanism', Watkins was keen to suggest that it would not have bid for the £1bn Regional Growth Funding which will be available in 2012.
“We suggested to the government within our submission that funds which already exist, through bodies such as the Manufacturing Advisory Service, could be better used as a support mechanism in co-operation with an overarching body. There’s no need for new funds to be offered; the existing funding just needs to be used in a more effective way."
A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said it would not comment on Business Voice's specific bid but it was still in talks with all applicants on how to develop LEPs.
