Plans to introduce Local Enterprise Partnerships
Date: 29/06/2010The Coalition is scrapping Regional Development Agencies, and inviting groups of local councils and businesses to form local enterprise partnerships - these will set out local economic priorities for their area, and will be able to bid for part of the new Regional Growth Fund. If you are planning a bid to become a Local Enterprise Partnership, and would like to discuss this with an Analyst from the Centre for Cities, please contact Kieran Larkin - k.larkin@centreforcities.org
Dermot Finch, Chief Executive of the Centre for Cities said:
"Local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) will need to do better than regional development agencies. Their top priority is to help generate more private sector jobs, as the public sector shrinks in England's cities. RDAs had a disappointing record on this, and it will be even tougher for LEPs.
"This is localism in action, with less money to spend. The ball is now in the court of local councils and businesses. They now need to come forward with their own plans for improving transport, housing, planning and enterprise. Coalition Ministers won't tell them exactly what to do, and new funding will be limited."
For more information please contact:
Rosamund Taylor, External Affairs Manager, Centre for Cities, 020 7803 4316 / 07876 175 426 / r.taylor@centreforcities.org
Notes to editors
The Centre for Cities is a non-partisan research and policy institute, helping cities to improve their economic performance.
The Centre for Cities recently wrote to Government Ministers with the Centre for Cities' six step plan for how the Government could establish Local Enterprise Partnerships.
Last winter, the Centre for Cities published a series of articles on the future for Regional Development Agencies, by Kieran Larkin.
On 7 June, the Centre for Cities published Private Sector Cities which identified that for every extra private sector job generated in the North and Midlands between 1998 and 2008 ten were created in London and the South. The report recommended a radical new approach to economic development across England's cities. It's available to download at www.centreforcities.org/privatesectorcities
