Tag Archives: LEPs

The case for a ‘local growth pact’…

By , Friday, 11 May 2012, Be the first to comment

One of the most striking political contrasts of early May was between Presidential elections in France and Local Government elections in England. In France we had M.Hollande elected on a turnout over 80% whilst in England we struggled to achieve 32%. One of the most striking economic policy contrasts is between M.Hollande’s priority to agree a European Growth Pact, and a Queen’s Speech in the UK widely reported as NOT providing the ‘answer to growth’.

Perhaps it is facile to link these contrasts. However, given the publics’ undoubted economic concerns, surely IF local political leaderships were putting forward radical, decisive and credible economic growth propositions, these would be of significant public (electoral?) interest. So, is there now a case for ‘local growth pacts’ (to match M. Hollande’s continental ambitions)? And, if so, what might these look like and how might they be delivered?

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Will LEPs rise to the NPPF challenge of ‘building a strong competitive economy’?

By , Wednesday, 4 April 2012, Be the first to comment

Will LEPs be welcomed through the doors of council planning offices?

With the publication on 27th March 2012 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) have an important (if modest) formal role in assisting ‘Local Planning Authorities’ (LPAs) to produce Local Plans that can deliver ‘sustainable development’ in their areas. However, they also have a much more significant potential to shape economic growth strategies across their and neighbouring geographies – IF (and this is surely the major challenge for LEPs over the coming period) they can mobilise and deploy strategic intelligence, policy and relationship capabilities to decisively influence the way local authorities actually put the NPPF into practice.

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Making Local Economic Sense of the Budget…

By , Monday, 26 March 2012, Be the first to comment

My last blog questioned ‘What are LEPs for’, and made suggestions about how to organise to deliver different LEP roles and functions. Last week’s budget was somewhat disappointing in helping to clarify these important issues. Government is still (in Vince Cable’s own words) ‘lacking a compelling vision of where the country is heading’, and nowhere is this more evident than in government’s approach to local economic growth.

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Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice – What is your LEP made of?

By , Tuesday, 13 March 2012, Be the first to comment

The popular nursery rhyme ‘What are little boys made of’ was the inspiration for The Searchers’ 1963 hit single ‘Sugar and Spice’ (as a response to the question ‘what are little girls made of?’). As Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) finalise their 2012/13 Budgets and Business Plans, I have been asking myself (and those LEP Boards with whom I am working) whether they are now clear ‘what their LEP is for?’ and, therefore, ‘what they need to be made of’ in the coming financial year and beyond.

It is important that LEPs do ask themselves those questions – ideally in that order – because my observation is that we are seeing LEPs take on widely varying roles and functions. These require quite different resourcing, organisation arrangements, and responses/support from local authorities, business and other partners if LEPs are to be effective.

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Financing Local Economic Growth and Growing Local Economic Finance…

By , Monday, 27 February 2012, Be the first to comment
Don't 'follow the money' to deliver local economic growth...

Need to do more than 'follow the money' to deliver local economic growth…

As we approach a pivotal Budget next month, now is an important moment to consider whether  government’s local government finance reforms will really provide the powers and resources to stimulate local economic growth. This analysis can shape the steps local authorities (LAs) and Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) need to take to realise returns from any of these changes.

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’Unlocking growth in cities’…’Unlocking incoherence in government’

By , Tuesday, 17 January 2012, Be the first to comment

Clegg and Clark’s announcement of ‘new city deals’ in December 2011 was broadly welcomed as a positive outcome of the Core Cities Group engagement with the Localism Bill (now Act), and was presented as a radical opportunity for putting Government’s ambitions for local growth and decentralisation into practice. It provided some localism and decentralist seasonal cheer from our Minister for Cities AND Decentralisation (not forgetting ‘Big Society’ and ‘Planning Policy’) at the end of a long arduous 2011.

In the cold light of 2012, however, Government’s ‘offer’ (in ‘Unlocking Growth in Cities’) appears incoherent and incomplete. How can cities, LEPs and other local partners turn it into something that will actually do ‘what it says on the tin’?

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Rebalancing is dead – long live the Growing Places Fund!

By , Wednesday, 9 November 2011, 3 Comments

The Growing Places Fund (GPF) prospectus, published this month, brings to mind the proverb about not ‘looking a gift horse in the mouth’ (especially in an era of public austerity). This can be the only reason why large parts of the country – especially in the North, West Midlands and ‘far’ South West – are not up in arms about it. For the GPF is the antithesis of Government’s professed objective of ‘rebalancing’ the economy geographically (from the ‘London mega-region’ to the rest of the country). Even as someone who never really believed that government had a coherent approach to ‘rebalancing’, the brazen flaunting of the death of its geographical variant has taken me aback. More pertinently, though, will LEP and Local Authority recipients outside the London mega-region meekly welcome this ‘trojan horse’ of GPF largesse?

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Are we in the autumn of local economic development?

By , Tuesday, 25 October 2011, 1 Comment

I do not recall Regeneration and Renewal (or Planning for that matter) celebrating great musical performance. However, I like to take at least one long walk per week, listening to my MP3 on shuffle/random mode. With the clocks going back next weekend, and the first frosts of the season upon us, it was entirely appropriate that my MP3 picked out ‘Autumn Leaves’ and the particularly beautiful version sung by Eva Cassidy on her 1996 ‘Live at Blues Alley’ album. And I do wonder and worry whether, with government’s approach to local economic growth, we are now in the autumn of local economic development as we knew it.

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Towards an industrial policy for local economies

By , Monday, 17 October 2011, 3 Comments

Local economic leadership teams need a local industrial policy. This case, and how to set about achieving it, is likely to be at the forefront of a workshop – ‘Delivering Local Policies for Manufacturing’ – hosted by the institute for Manufacturing (IfM) at Cambridge University this week[1]. With bold leadership and sustained commitment a credible industrial strategy can be formulated, agreeed and can deliver economic growth in local economies.

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Beyond the commuter belt – growth and development in rural England

By , Monday, 26 September 2011, 1 Comment

It is fair to say that most comment on sub-national growth and development during 2011 (including in this blog) has focused on cities – most particularly London and the eight Core Cities.  However, the Government Growth Review Phase Two, announced in June 2011, included the rural economy as one of six topics to be addressed. What should rural businesses and local leadership teams be feeding into the review in advance of expected rural economy announcements in the Autumn statement?

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