Local enterprise partnerships: government to decide

As the government sifts through the 56 bids from groups of local authorities and businesses in England hoping to become local enterprise partnerships (LEPs), it has been warned that their bids will be complex to assess. LEPs are the public-private partnerships with which the present government intends to replace regional development agencies (RDAs). The deadline for submitting LEP proposals was midnight on Monday 6 September, following the announcement of the scheme in June by business secretary Vince Cable and communities secretary Eric Pickles. The bidding process itself has already created tensions in some areas. North Lincolnshire council's bid, which calls for an LEP between four councils in the Humber area, for instance, has led to some councillors claiming they were not properly consulted over the plans, while council leaders in Hull and the East Riding have opted instead to link up with councils in Scarborough. Other bids include the East of England, which claims to be one of only three regions in the country to make a positive contribution to the nation's coffers. Its proposed LEP will, in effect, be a low-cost version of the East of England Development Agency. The largest proposal comes from the two county councils of Kent and greater Essex. The government has not yet said how many LEPs will replace the existing nine RDAs, although a limit of 30 has been discussed, and the 56 proposals, published on the website of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), vary considerably. A report by the Institute for Public Policy thinktank says the assessment process will not be straightforward. It points out that there will be contradictory bids, with overlapping geographical areas for proposals. "Some areas could find that they fall in within an LEP that they do not want to be part of," it says. Similarly, the broad guidelines for LEPs will create uncertainty as to what will meet the criteria and what will not. The report says that LEPs are now in the vanguard of sub-national economic development and it is vital that they are strong and powerful bodies able to make a real contribution not just to economic development, but to localism and social justice. The government's white paper on sub-national economic development is due out soon. Monday was also the closing date for the consultation on the Regional Growth Fund. Announced in the budget, the £1bn fund will provide support for projects that offer significant potential for sustainable economic growth and can create new private sector jobs. The two-year fund is designed help areas that have been traditionally reliant on the public sector "make the transition to private sector growth and prosperity", according to the department for BIS.