News story

Northamptonshire local enterprise partnership approved

The Northamptonshire local enterprise partnership covers a population of around 683,000 and represents over 24,785 businesses. It has the support…

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

The Northamptonshire local enterprise partnership covers a population of around 683,000 and represents over 24,785 businesses. It has the support of both businesses and local authorities in the area and joins the 37 partnerships announced since the Government’s Local Growth White Paper was published in October last year.

The priority of the private sector-led partnership is to promote growth and create jobs in the area. To achieve this, the Northamptonshire partnership plans to help create 70,000 new jobs over the next 15 years. Its priorities include increasing the coverage of super-fast broad band, regenerating and improving connectivity between the main population areas, supporting the tourism industry and helping to realise the potential of the growth sectors like advanced manufacturing and engineering, information technology and logistics.

Business and Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk said:

“I am delighted that we are able to approve a proposal for a Northamptonshire local enterprise partnership, which will have the best interests of the local area at its heart.

“All local enterprise partnerships are making excellent progress in bringing together their plans for local growth, and I hope to see this partnership working quickly to identify the needs of the area it will serve.

“Local enterprise partnerships have an important role to play in identifying each area’s potential for growth and I want all local communities to benefit from the knowledge and expertise of the private sector and the opportunities that growth brings.”

Decentralisation Minister Greg Clark said:

“Northamptonshire has huge potential for growth and in the next ten years is well placed to help drive national economic recovery. The Northamptonshire local enterprise partnership will see local civic and business leaders take the reins of the local economy and exploit this potential for Northamptonshire to become a powerhouse for the economy.

“We now have 38 local enterprise partnerships that are a testament to the strength of local leadership, ideas and ambition across the country and will help create a fairer, more balanced economy driven by private sector strength.”

A new network for local enterprise partnerships is now live following Ministers’ announcement in April that the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) would establish a network to share best practice across the LEP community. Although the BCC has been invited to convene the Network, it will be separate from the BCC and will work collaboratively with other organisations including business groups.

The network has already conducted the first local enterprise partnership conference on 15 September, which was attended by partnership members from across the country and Ministers.

Local enterprise 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 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 Northamptonshire local enterprise partnership covers the entire county of Northamptonshire, whose districts are Corby, Daventry, East Northants, Kettering, Northampton, South Northants and Wellingborough

  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. Today the Northamptonshire partnership joins the 37 partnerships approved since October. The total 38 now approved are:

  • Black Country

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

  • Cheshire & Warrington

  • Coast to Capital

  • Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly

  • Coventry & Warwickshire

  • Cumbria

  • Dorset

  • Enterprise M3

  • Gloucestershire

  • Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough

  • Greater Manchester

  • Hertfordshire

  • Humber

  • Kent, Greater Essex & East Sussex

  • Lancashire

  • Leeds City Region

  • Leicester & Leicestershire

  • Lincolnshire

  • Liverpool City Region

  • London

  • New Anglia

  • Northamptonshire

  • North Eastern

  • Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby & Derbyshire

  • Oxfordshire City Region

  • Sheffield City Region

  • Solent

  • South East Midlands

  • Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire

  • Swindon and Wiltshire

  • Tees Valley

  • Thames Valley Berkshire

  • The Heart of the South West

  • The Marches

  • West of England

  • Worcestershire

  • York & North Yorkshire

  1. Taken together, these 38 partnerships represent:

  • 99 per cent of all businesses (active enterprises) in England

  • 23m employees (employee jobs figures) or 99 per cent of all employees in England and;

  • A population of 51m or 99 per cent of England’s population.

Sources: Population - ONS Mid-year Population Estimates, 2009. Active Enterprises - ONS Business Demography, 2009. Employee jobs - ONS Annual Business Inquiry, 2008.”

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

  2. 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

  3. 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

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

  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 23 September 2011