Economy, The Regions

– LEP’s may recieve more funds

The 31 LEP may receive more funds

The Chairs from the 31 approved partnerships were invited to meet with ministers, including Business Secretary Dr Vince Cable and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles, to discuss the vital role that local enterprise partnerships will play in driving forward growth in their communities, and rebalancing the economy across the country.

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The Deputy Prime Minister also announced today that the successful bids to the Regional Growth Fund would be announced shortly and that the second round of the fund would open on April 12. He also announced that due to the number of high quality bids received the funding allocated to the first round may increase.

31 partnerships were approved. Taken together, these 31 partnerships represent:

  • 1.8m or 87% of all businesses (active enterprises) in England
  • 20m employees (employee jobs figures) or 68% of all employees in England and;
  • A population of 45m or 87% of England’s population.

The £1.4bn Regional Growth Fund received 464 bids totalling £2.7bn in the first round. Money will be allocated to bids which demonstrate innovative ways of encouraging enterprise, growth and jobs in the private sector and support regions that are dependent on the public sector.

 

The 31 partnerships approved since October 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 Marches
– West of England
– Worcestershire
– York and North Yorkshire

1 Comment

  1. Of course the suggestion that funding for LEPs might be increased should be welcomed, but whether it will be enough remains to be seen.

    UK manufacturing is showing signs of regrowth, yet despite this, the offering of more money will do little to save companies like Modec, which has gone into administration with debts of more than £40m. Modec was one of the leading producers of electric vans in this country and a key player in the development of a new green industrial base.

    If the government intends to build the economy and help unemployed people back into sustainable employment they will need to establish a far clearer strategy for funding regional growth. At the moment the evidence would suggest it is based more on ‘knee-jerk’ economics.

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