News story

New Anglia, Black Country and Worcestershire join Local Enterprise Partnership Network

The partnerships for New Anglia, covering Norfolk and Suffolk, the Black Country and Worcestershire now join the 24 approved partnerships that…

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

The partnerships for New Anglia, covering Norfolk and Suffolk, the Black Country and Worcestershire now join the 24 approved partnerships that were announced in October at the launch of the Government’s Local Growth White Paper.

Local enterprise partnerships will bring local business and civic leaders together, 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.

Dr Cable said:

“I am pleased that we are able to ask another three local enterprise partnerships to appoint their boards. The partnerships have an important role to play in driving local economic growth and creating a strong environment for business.”

Eric Pickles said:

“New Anglia, Worcestershire and the Black Country are vital new additions to the growing network of local enterprise partnerships that are going to help to create a fairer and more balanced economy driven by private sector strength.

“Local enterprise partnerships are bringing about a new local dynamism and a real power shift away from central Government and quangos towards local communities and local businesses who really understand what their economy needs to grow.”

The new partnerships were announced as the fourth Regional Growth Fund road show, led by Sir Ian Wrigglesworth, took place at the John Innes Centre in the Norwich Research Park.

The Regional Growth Fund will support projects that can drive sustainable economic growth and create new private sector jobs. It will focus particularly on helping communities that are currently dependent on the public sector make the transition to private sector-led growth and prosperity.

The first round of bidding for the fund closes on January 21. All bids received will be assessed by an independent panel chaired by Lord Heseltine, with Sir Ian as his deputy.

Notes to editors:

  1. In September the Government received 62 responses to its invitation to form local enterprise partnerships. Proposals covered every part of England outside London. Today a further three partnerships have been added to the 24 which have already been asked to progress their proposals to the next stage. The 27 approved partnerships are:

  • Black Country

  • Birmingham & Solihull with E. Staffordshire, Lichfield &Tamworth

  • Cheshire and Warrington

  • Coast to Capital

  • Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly

  • Coventry & Warwickshire

  • Cumbria

  • Gt. Cambridge & Gt. Peterborough

  • Greater Manchester

  • Hertfordshire

  • Kent, Greater Essex & East Sussex

  • Leeds City Region

  • Leicester & Leicestershire

  • Lincolnshire

  • Liverpool City Region

  • New Anglia

  • Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby, & Derbyshire

  • Oxfordshire City Region

  • Sheffield City Region

  • Solent

  • S.E. Midlands

  • Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire

  • Tees Valley

  • Thames Valley Berkshire

  • The Marches

  • West of England

  • Worcestershire

  1. Proposals were assessed in line with the expectations set out in the 29 June 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

  2. The Local Growth White Paper proposes that local enterprise partnerships will 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

  1. Revised proposals from partnerships that have not yet been approved will be welcomed by Government as they become ready_. _

  2. The membership of the Independent Advisory Panel for the Regional Growth Fund is as follows:

  • Lord Heseltine, Chair

  • Sir Ian Wrigglesworth, Deputy Chair

  • Felicity Goodey (Businesswoman, former senior BBC journalist)

  • Tony Greenham (Programme Head, New Economics Foundation)

  • Richard Lambert (Director General, CBI)

  • Jon Moulton (Chairman, Better Capital equity group)

  • Caroline Plumb (Entrepreneur, Freshminds)

  • Sir David Rowlands (Chair of Gatwick Airport Ltd and Angel Trains Group Ltd)

  • Mark Seligman (Chartered Accountant and Banker, Credit Suisse)

  • Andrew Shilston (Finance Director, Rolls Royce)

  • Lord John Shipley (Former Leader Newcastle City Council)

  • Tony Venables (Academic Economist, Oxford University)

  1. Full details of the Fund are available from the Regional Growth Fund website: http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/regional-economic-development/regional-growth-fund

  2. For further information on the growth agenda visit http://www.bis.gov.uk/growth

  3. BIS’ 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 Una Flynn Job Title

Division Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Phone 020 7215 5256 Fax

Mobile

Email Una.Flynn@bis.gsi.gov.uk

Published 13 December 2010