LEPs

Fresh hope for a Greater Birmingham authority – but only if council leaders can agree

Manchester, Yorkshire, Newcastle and Liverpool in radical push to regional governance

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Published July 26, 2013, in LEPs, WM2015

A little over two years ago the metropolitan councils of Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Manchester, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, and Wigan formed the Greater Manchester combined local authority with powers to oversee transport, economic development and regeneration.

This was the first small but significant step towards regional governance since John Prescott’s ill-judged 2001 plan for regional assemblies, and there were many pundits ready to suggest that other conurbations across England and Wales would quickly follow Manchester’s example.

Certainly, the Greater Manchester authorities had already been working together for several years in a more informal organisation and were  in well equipped to formalise the arrangements.  It is true, however, that the case for combined authorities has been given a boost by the emergence of Local Enterprise Partnerships, which have been handed responsibility for delivering economic development across council borders through the Regional Growth Fund.

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Plan to merge Greater Birmingham and Black Country LEPs revealed

Politicians must take unity issue by 'scruff of the neck' says Birmingham council leader Albert Bore

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Published July 9, 2013, in LEPs, Popular

High-level political discussions aimed at ending a history of bitter rivalry and mutual suspicion by merging the two Local Enterprise Partnerships representing Greater Birmingham and the Black Country are under way.

Proposals to bring together the Greater Birmingham and Solihull and Black Country LEPs are being spearheaded by Sir Albert Bore, the leader of Birmingham City Council, who said it was self-defeating for the two organisations to exist separately.

The move, if it comes off, would create the country’s largest economic partnership between the public and private sector covering a population of about three million and with a GVA of more than £50 billion.

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Government must back LEPs with five-year funding deals, say MPs

Commons committee criticses Whitehall 'confusion' over regeneration bodies

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Published April 26, 2013, in LEPs

Adrian Bailey MP

Adrian Bailey MP

A Minister should be given responsibility for overseeing Local Enterprise Partnerships and the Government must commit to long term financial backing for LEPs, a Commons committee has suggested.

The also said  LEPs across the country could not fulfil their regeneration role without the “certainty and security” of a five-year core funding deal from Whitehall.

Committee chairman Adrian Bailey, the MP for West Bromwich West, said: “LEPs help drive the local economic growth on which national growth relies.

“They are expected to deliver long-term growth. To do this they require the confidence to make long-term investments. The current funding commitments fail to provide this. We urge the Government to support LEPs in delivering long-term growth by committing to the levels of their core funding for the five years from 2015.”

The committee is urging the Government to move away from funding LEPs on a “one size-fits-all basis” towards

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George Osborne: ‘I’m Backing Birmingham’

Chancellor will do 'everything possible' to support 40,000 jobs enterprise zone

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Published February 22, 2013, in LEPs, Politics

georgeThe Chancellor of the Exchequer has given his personal backing to an initiative that places Birmingham at the forefront of a Government drive to reignite struggling regional economies.

George Osborne made it clear that he would do everything possible to support the new city centre enterprise zone – a unique investment vehicle that, it is claimed, will deliver 40,000 jobs through regenerating 26 key sites including Paradise Circus and the Children’s Hospital.

Mr Osborne heaped fulsome praise on the city council and the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership, the two bodies responsible for overseeing and running the zone.

Birmingham had “got its act together” in a way that other cities had not, the Chancellor said.

The enterprise zone is the latest example in a long list of efforts over many years to

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Heseltine calls for revival of Birmingham’s ‘buccaneer’ spirit

Government is backing 'serious attempt to return power to the people', claims Tory grandee

By:
Published January 3, 2013, in LEPs

HezzaThere was absolutely no room for cynics at the launch of the Greater Birmingham Project.

Even sceptics might have found themselves feeling a little queasy.

Leaders of the city’s business, academic and political communities were suitably enthused at an almost evangelical performance by , whose message was that after countless false dawns the long march towards localism has finally begun.

And could there be a more suitable place than

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