News story

Swindon and Wiltshire joins local enterprise partnership network

The Swindon and Wiltshire local enterprise partnership covers a population of around 650,000 and represents over 26,000 businesses. It has the…

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

The Swindon and Wiltshire local enterprise partnership covers a population of around 650,000 and represents over 26,000 businesses. It has the support of both local authorities in the area and joins the 36 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 Swindon and Wiltshire partnership plans to help create 10,000 new jobs and safeguard a further 8,000 by 2015. 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.

Mark Prisk said:

“I’m delighted that we are able to approve a proposal for a Swindon and Wiltshire partnership that had the best interests of the area at its heart.

“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:

“We can see from the Swindon and Wiltshire local enterprise partnership the strength of the area’s local ambition, leadership and ideas. It is clear local councils, businesses and civic leaders are ready to exploit Swindon and Wiltshire’s potential for growth and create new jobs.

“There are now 37 local enterprise partnerships, covering 98 per cent of the country, moving us closer to creating a fairer and more balanced economy driven by private sector strength. I’m delighted the business-led network for local enterprise partnerships is now live and hosting its first local enterprise partnership conference in September, which will allow partnerships across the country to share ideas and information as they get off the ground. “

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

The network has already announced the first local enterprise partnership conference to be held at the Park Plaza County Hall Hotel in London and attended by partnership members from across the country and Ministers on September 15.

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 Swindon and Wiltshire local enterprise partnership covers: Swindon and Wiltshire Councils.

  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 Swindon and Wiltshire partnership has been asked to set up its board and progress its proposals to the next stage. It joins the 36 partnerships approved since October. The total 37 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

  • 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 37 partnerships represent:

  • 2m or 98 per cent of all businesses (active enterprises) in England

  • 23m employees (employee jobs figures) or 98 per cent of all employees in England and;

  • A population of 51m or 98 per cent of England’s population.

  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. For media enquiries on the Local Enterprise Partnership Network, please contact Liz Larvin at the British Chamber of Commerce on 020 7654 5813 or l.larvin@britishchambers.org.uk.

  3. 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 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 Joanna Fletcher Job Title

Division Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Phone 020 7215 5951 Fax

Mobile

Email Joanna.Fletcher@bis.gsi.gov.uk

Published 21 July 2011