Business Minister tours North West local enterprise partnerships and small businesses
Today (Thursday) he met with the local enterprise partnerships for Greater Manchester and Cheshire & Warrington. At the meeting with the Cheshire…
Today (Thursday) he met with the local enterprise partnerships for Greater Manchester and Cheshire & Warrington. At the meeting with the Cheshire & Warrington partnership, the Minister announced that the Government had confirmed the chair and board.
While in Manchester he will also give a speech to the North West Business Forum, before going on to visit EA technology’s site near Ellesemere Port and then to a meeting with the Knowsley Chamber of Commerce.
Tomorrow (Friday) the Business Minister will be in Liverpool for a meeting with the Liverpool City Region local enterprise partnership. He is taking part in two business roundtables: one on exports, trade and investment, and another on how Liverpool is beating the recession.
Mark Prisk said:
“Local enterprise partnerships are key to enabling local communities to thrive and will play a very significant role in boosting growth. The partnerships I’ve met in the last two days are very good example of partnerships that have got off the ground quickly. They are all planning their work on their priorities, which include rebalancing the economy from the public to the private sector, by addressing skills, business support and infrastructure.
“We want to hand over power to from Whitehall to local people, local businesses and local communities - the people who are best placed to drive forward change for the better in their areas.”
While in Liverpool the Business Minister will also be attending the Federation of Small Businesses conference at the BT Convention Centre.
Local Enterprise Partnerships are locally led and driven. A total of 31 partnerships have been approved across England and each are now working on plans for how they will proceed, communicating with businesses in their areas. Cheshire & Warrington is the sixth local enterprise partnership to have formally confirmed their chair and board, and many are operating with interim boards and chairs in place.
The partnerships bring together local business and civic leaders, working to support their local economy. They operate within a geography that reflects natural economic areas and will provide the vision, knowledge and strategic leadership needed to drive sustainable private sector growth and job creation in their area.
Notes to editors:
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The Greater Manchester local enterprise partnership consists of 2,601,000 residents and 88,460 active enterprises (so 34 enterprises per 1,000 residents). It has 1,128,400 residents in employment (aged 16-64) and an unemployment rate of about 9.5%. The public sector accounts for 22.2% of employee jobs.
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The Cheshire and Warrington local enterprise partnership consists of 887,100 residents and 37,110 active enterprises (so 41.8 enterprises per 1,000 residents). It has 414,500 residents in employment (aged 16-24) and an unemployment rate of about 6%. The public sector accounts for 18.6% of employee jobs.
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The Liverpool City Region local enterprise partnership consists of 1,469,300 residents and 38,510 active enterprises (so 26.2 enterprises per 1,000 residents). It has 609,000 residents in employment (aged 16-24) and an unemployment rate of about 10%. The public sector accounts for 27.5% of employee jobs.
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The Cheshire & Warrington local enterprise partnership board has the following members:
- Christine Gaskell, (Chair), Bentley Motors Ltd.
- Howard Hopwood (Deputy Chair), Harman Technology Ltd.
- Cllr Wesley Fitzgerald, Leader, Cheshire East Council
- Cllr Mike Jones, Leader Cheshire West and Chester Council
- Cllr Ian Marks, Leader Warrington Council
- Professor Tim Wheeler, Vice Chancellor University of Chester
- Sara Mogel, Principal West Cheshire College
- Alison Roylance-White, Cheshire Community Action
- Martin Ashcroft, Brunner Mond
- Robert Davis, EA Technology Limited
- Louise Morrissey, Peel Holdings
- Graham Ramsbottom, Grosvenor Estate
- Nigel Schofield, Northenden Travel Group
- Pete Waterman, Pete Waterman Entertainments Ltd. -
The Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region partnerships have shadow boards in place and are in the process of putting in place their formal arrangements.
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In September 2010 the Government received 62 responses to its invitation to form local enterprise partnerships. The 31 partnerships approved since October are:
- Black Country
- Birmingham & Solihull with E. Staffordshire, Lichfield & Tamworth
- Cheshire and Warrington
- Coast to Capital
- Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly
- Coventry & Warwickshire
- Cumbria
- Enterprise M3
- Gt. Cambridge & Gt. Peterborough
- Greater Manchester
- Hertfordshire
- Kent, Greater Essex & East Sussex
- Leeds City Region
- Leicester & Leicestershire
- Lincolnshire
- Liverpool City Region
- London
- New Anglia
- North Eastern
- Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby, & Derbyshire
- Oxfordshire
- Sheffield City Region
- Solent
- South East Midlands
- Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire
- Tees Valley
- Thames Valley Berkshire
- The Marches
- West of England
- Worcestershire
- York and North Yorkshire -
Taken together, these 31 partnerships represent:
- 1.8m or 87% of all businesses (active enterprises) in England
- 20m employees (employee jobs figures) or 68% of all employees in England and;
- A population of 45m or 87% of England’s population. -
A map of approved local enterprise partnerships is available from http://geocommons.com/maps/32888
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Proposals for partnerships were assessed in line with the expectations set out in the 29 June 2010 letter from the Business Secretary and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government: http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/regional/docs/10-1026-final-letter-local-enterprise-partnerships
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Specifically, the Local Growth White Paper proposes that local enterprise partnerships will be able to consider a diverse range of roles, reflecting the differing local priorities in different areas, including:
- working with Government to set out key investment priorities, including transport infrastructure;
- coordinating proposals or bidding directly for the Regional Growth Fund;
- Supporting high growth businesses;
- Participation in the development of national planning policy and ensuring business is involved in the consideration of strategic planning applications;
- Lead changes in how businesses are regulated locally;
- Strategic housing delivery, including pooling and aligning funding streams;
- Working with local employers, Jobcentre Plus and learning providers to help local workless people into jobs;
- Coordinating approaches to leverage funding from the private sector;
- Exploring opportunities for developing incentives on renewable energy projects and Green Deal; and
- Involvement in the delivery of other national priorities such as digital infrastructure. -
Revised proposals from partnerships which have not yet been approved will be welcomed by Government as they become ready_. _
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The local enterprise partnership capacity fund will help the partnerships to understand business issues in their area. The fund will be £4m over four years, and ministers are seeking bids which address gaps in intelligence available to partnerships; facilitate business engagement and interaction with partnerships; or boost board capacity to prioritise actions which will support business-led growth and jobs within a partnerships’ area. The closing date for bids to the first round is March 31.
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Notes to Editors
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