Mark Prisk meets with West of England and heart of South West local enterprise partnerships
He met with the West of England LEP Board at Airbus in Filton this morning, to hear about the progress the partnership has made in appointing…
He met with the West of England LEP Board at Airbus in Filton this morning, to hear about the progress the partnership has made in appointing its board and the main objectives and priorities it hopes to address.
During his roundtable with the partnership and local business leaders, they discussed how the partnership could drive growth in the local economy. The LEP covers Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset, and North Somerset.
This afternoon, the Minister visited Exeter College, where he met the Heart of the South West LEP, which covers Devon and areas of Somerset.
Mark Prisk said:
“Meeting with these two local enterprise partnerships was valuable in helping me to understand what the local challenges are and how the partnerships’ vision will help to address them.
“The representatives I met have exceptional local knowledge and we discussed their ideas for the future. I have every confidence that they will be a success and look forward to hearing more about their progress.
“I have now met 13 local enterprise partnerships and will be meeting more across England in the coming weeks and months to hear about their concerns, their successes and most importantly how they plan to make a contribution to economic growth in their area.”
The West of England local enterprise partnership is one of the first 24 that were announced in October when the Government published its white paper on local growth. The Heart of South West partnership was announced last month.
Local enterprise partnerships bring together local business and civic leaders, working to support their local economy. They will 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 West of England LEP covers a population of one million people, with 40,000 active enterprises.
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The Heart of South West LEP covers a population of 1.6 million people and 63,500 active businesses.
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In September 2010 the Government received 62 responses to its invitation to form local enterprise partnerships. Proposals covered every part of England outside London. The total 32 now approved 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 City Region
- Sheffield City Region
- Solent
- South East Midlands
- Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire
- Tees Valley
- Thames Valley Berkshire
- The Heart of the South West
- The Marches
- West of England
- Worcestershire
- York and North Yorkshire
- Taken together, these 32 partnerships represent:
- 1.8m or 90% of all businesses (active enterprises) in England
- 21m employees (employee jobs figures) or 91% of all employees in England and;
- A population of 47m or 90% of England’s population.
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A map of approved local enterprise partnerships is available from http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/economic-development/leps
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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](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, for example through involvement in bids to run the new growth hubs;
- 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;
- involvement in the delivery of other national priorities such as digital infrastructure
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Revised proposals from partnerships which have not yet been approved will be welcomed by Government as they become ready_. _
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BIS’s online newsroom contains the latest press notices, speeches, as well as video and images for download. It also features an up to date list of BIS press office contacts. See [http://www.bis.gov.uk/newsroomhttp://www.bis.gov.uk/newsroom](http://www.bis.gov.uk/newsroomhttp://www.bis.gov.uk/newsroom) for more information.
Notes to Editors
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