News story

Mark Prisk to meet Solent local enterprise partnership

Mr Prisk will meet with the partnership at the Royal Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth to hear about the main objectives and priorities it hopes…

From:
Department for Business, Innovation & Skills
Published
14 June 2011
This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Mr Prisk will meet with the partnership at the Royal Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth to hear about the main objectives and priorities it hopes to address. He will also discuss how the partnership will drive growth in the local economy.

The partnership covers the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, Southampton, East Hampshire, Eastleigh, Fareham, Gosport, Havant, New Forest, Test Valley and Winchester.

During his visit to Portsmouth, Mr Prisk will also open the inaugural UK Naval Engineering Science & Technology (UK NEST) Careers Day at Portsmouth Naval Base. The event provides the opportunity for a broad range of University Careers Advisors to meet leading Naval Defence companies and to visit major Royal Naval projects including Type 45 Destroyers and the Queen Elizabeth Aircraft Carrier module build facility.

Mark Prisk said:

“Meeting with the Solent partnership will be extremely valuable in helping me to understand local challenges and how the partnerships’ vision will help to address them.

“The representatives I am meeting have exceptional local knowledge and we will discuss their ideas for the future and how they will put their action plans into practice.

“I am also delighted to open the UK Naval Engineering Science & Technology (UK NEST) Careers Day at Portsmouth Naval Base. The Naval Defence sector is an important part of our industrial base, employing more than 24,000 people and contributing over £3 billion of revenue to the economy.

“This Careers Day will hopefully result in more graduates undertaking a career in this thriving sector.”

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

  1. The Solent LEP covers a population of 1.3 million people, and 50,000 businesses.

  2. 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 35 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
  • Gloucestershire
  • Gt. Cambridge & Gt. Peterborough
  • Greater Manchester
  • Hertfordshire
  • Humber
  • Kent, Greater Essex & East Sussex
  • Lancashire
  • 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

  1. There are now 35 local enterprise partnerships across the country covering over 96 per cent of England’s population, 1.9 million businesses and 22 million employees. These partnerships bring local business and council leaders together to determine the economic priorities for their areas.

  2. A map of approved local enterprise partnerships is available from: http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/economic-development/leps

  3. 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

  4. 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 infrastructure7. Revised proposals from partnerships which have not yet been approved will be welcomed by Government as they become ready.
  1. The United Kingdom Naval Engineering Science & Technology (UK NEST) was formed in 2005 as a community of Industrial and Ministry of Defence organisations focused on sustaining and developing the UK Naval design and engineering intellectual base. Today UK NEST is a subscription-based organisation with the following membership:
  • Aveva
  • Babcock Marine
  • BAE Systems Marine
  • BMT Defence Services
  • Converteam
  • Defence Science & Technology Laboratory
  • Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology
  • Lloyd’s Register
  • Ministry of Defence, Defence Equipment and Support
  • QinetiQ
  • Rolls-Royce
  • Royal Institution of Naval Architects
  • Royal Navy
  • Systems Engineering & Assessment

  1. The over-riding purpose of UK NEST is to provide a forum for the UK’s professional Naval Engineering, Science and Technology community to address issues of common concern, fostering specific professional development needs and providing a focal point for interaction with, and influencing the wider Government and Industrial community. To this end, UK NEST operates through a series of Working Groups focusing on specific areas of concern.

  2. 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/newsroom](http://www.bis.gov.uk/newsroom) for more information.

Notes to Editors

Contact Information

Name BIS Press Office Job Title

Division COI Phone

Fax

Mobile

Email NDS.BIS@coi.gsi.gov.uk

Name James Platt Job Title

Division Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Phone 020 7215 5978 Fax

Mobile

Email james.platt@bis.gov.uk

Published 14 June 2011