LEPs are vital in devolution deals to accelerate £16 billion of private sector investment

Local Enterprise Partnership’s (LEPs) must keep a central role in the developing devolution landscape, if they are to realise the potential leverage of £16bn from private sector investors, and help business create 750,000 new jobs by 2021 the LEP Summit heard today.

The 39 LEPs in England, all led by business, are working with local partners on devolution deals aimed at accelerating economic growth and creating new jobs. LEPs know economic geographies well and their private sector leadership is delivering solutions that meet business needs. 

Opening the LEP Summit, Baroness Williams of Trafford, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said:

“LEPs have forged excellent relationships between local businesses and local government that have added significant economic value in local economies across England.  With LEPs on course to deliver £16 billion in private investment and 750,000 new jobs in the next five years, they play a vital role in unlocking economic growth and creating jobs.

“Business led LEPs will continue to have a critical role in shaping and implementing devolution deals.  Of the 38 devolution proposals received so far, by far the strongest are those which have the clear support of their local business community.”

The summit showcased businesses that are already benefitting from the impact of LEPs in creating that economic competitiveness and prosperity:

• The CEO of IBM Services Centre Ltd, Bernard Szczech, showed how his business benefitted from the input of the Leicester and Leicestershire LEP through the Regional Growth Fund, to open a new services centre in Leicester that will create 300 new IT roles over the next three years. The centre will position Leicester as a hub for global businesses and provide high-value technology services to business across the UK.

• The MD of global British hovercraft business Griffon Hoverwork, Adrian Went, highlighted how a multi-million pound grant from the Solent LEP’s Growing Places Fund was invested, resulting in two new passenger hovercraft, creating 40 new jobs, safeguarding an additional 400 jobs, and providing significant environmental improvements.

• CEO Robert Hartshorne of music production company Ex Cantibus Gaudium (ECG), showed the impact of the Thames Valley Berkshire LEP in enabling them to be the first business to secure a loan from the LEP’s business expansion loan scheme. A vital source of funding that enabled ECG to break into new markets including new partnerships in China.

Mark Reeve, Chair of the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough LEP and Managing Director of Chalcroft said:

“LEPs have made rapid progress since their early beginnings. The figures on the collective impact of LEPs to date and the businesses we’ve heard from today, clearly demonstrate the value added.

‘LEPs are pivotal in decentralisation and driving local economic development. They bring a significant business voice to the devolution debate, and it’s business that will create that growth and deliver those jobs, through the 3,000 Private Sector Individuals who lead the LEPs” 

‘When LEPs published their Strategic Economic Plans, they set clear objectives and programmes. They have already created over 100,000 new jobs and leveraged £4 billion of private sector investment.  By being at the heart of devolution deals, they will accelerate economic growth including helping business create 750,000 new jobs and investing £6bn in infrastructure.” 

David Owen, Chief Executive of GFirst LEP, said: 

“Gloucestershire is facing a fantastic opportunity - devolution will give us the flexibilities to use resources and responsibilities in the best possible way. This will enable the private sector to have a strong voice and genuine influence on skills and business support, empowering them to achieve the ambitions that were put forward in the Strategic Economic Plan.” 

“There is no one size fits all approach to local economic growth, and we want to ensure that planned growth happens when and where it should. GFirst LEP will continue to work with partners to align public, private and voluntary sector working, to achieve ambitions for growth in Gloucestershire and the key priorities outlined in our SEP.”

A report earlier this month by the manufacturers organisation EEF, who joined the devolution panel at the LEP Summit, called for the Devolution Bill to give greater powers and an “enhanced role” to Local Enterprise Partnerships.

Recently, local government think tank Localis published research on the role of LEPs in devolution. It showed that, if LEPs get the devolution they have requested, England could be contributing an extra £144bn a year to the economy by 2020. They pointed to an English economy worth £1,600bn if the present level of devolution is maintained, but if LEPs get the powers and funds that they have requested from central government, the English economy is expected to be worth £1,744bn by 2020.

The 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships in England bring the Private and Public Sectors together to drive local economic growth from the bottom up. The LEP Network links these 39 bodies through their Chairs and Executives, with the aim of sharing best practice and learning across LEPs to maximise the impact of the network as a whole. We act further as a two-way conduit with Central Government on network-wide strategic issues relating to the generation of more jobs and growth in the economy.