Michael Heseltine

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

Commons committee criticses Whitehall 'confusion' over regeneration bodies

By:
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

Continues…

Could the age of Metro Mayors be upon us?

Danie Crowe of the Localis think tank says 'single pots' for LEPs demand a new form of democratic accountability in the regions

By:
Published April 7, 2013, in Opinion


Washed away by the Budget headlines of pints, petrol and pump-priming a property-owning democracy to help jolt Britain’s zombie economy back to life, the real domestic story of last week was the Government’s response to the Heseltine Review. Hidden away in the detail there can be found what might just be the embryonic refashioning of a

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Tory point-scoring on the LEP is music to Clancy’s ears

Commons pantomime hands ammunition to Bore's leadership rival

By:
Published March 19, 2013, in Opinion


Michael Fabricant (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Amusing exchange in the Commons yesterday, as bouffant-haired Lichfield Tory Michael Fabricant feigned amnesia to deliver combative local government minister Eric Pickles an opportunity to have a swipe at Sir Albert Bore:

 

Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con): I spent Sunday afternoon at the launch of the Heseltine review under the auspices of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull local enterprise partnership, chaired by Andy Street, whom I know you know, Mr Speaker. It was a real pleasure to see the leader of Birmingham city council, whose name I have temporarily forgotten-no, it is Sir Albert Bore-a Labour councillor, support this. Does my right hon. Friend agree that this is a real step forward for the Midlands, and will he soon go up to the Midlands to help with this exciting project?

Mr Pickles: Obviously, I regret that my hon. Friend forgot the name of Sir Albert Bore-an important man in local government who I am pleased to say seems to have changed his tune. He was predicting disaster; he was predicting that all kinds of things would go terribly wrong-yet here we are, with him co-operating with the Government. That is a marvellous sign for the future.

 

Music to the ears of Bore’s city Labour leadership rival John Clancy, who is already branding the LEP a Tory creation.

 

Related articles

 

Just whose hands are on the LEP and its Single Pot?

Local government must take care not to strangle private sector entreprenurialism

By:
Published March 18, 2013, in Opinion


hezzaSince the rest of Chamberlain News’ top team (Marc Reeves and Kevin Johnson) have had their say, here’s my take on the rise and rise of the Greater Birmingham LEP:

Michael Heseltine, the arch-interventionist, who must by now be thinking all of his Christmases have come at once, posed a simple question when he took control of the Greater Birmingham Project: “Who is in charge?”

Lord Heseltine recognised there would have to be a clear and accountable chain of command if Whitehall was to be persuaded of the case for transferring billions of pounds of Government cash to enable Local Enterprise Partnerships to stimulate regional economies.

The initial attraction of LEPs for the Government was that these organisations would be lean and mean, with boards consisting of a majority of local business leaders. LEPs were not to be controlled by local councils, and most definitely were not to turn into new versions of the plodding, bureaucracy laden regional development agencies.

There was never much doubt that the Chancellor would accept most of the findings in Lord Heseltine’s No Stone Unturned report and that, as a result, a large sum of single pot money will soon be winging its way to the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) to be spent on

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The path to local growth – or a cul-de-sac?

The GBSLEP bid to be the first LEP to recieve a single pot is thin on evidence - but bursting with potential, says Kevin Johnson

By:
Published March 18, 2013, in Opinion


There is, quite understandably, plenty of positive coverage for overnight. But for Leveson shenanigans, stories about Lord Hestletine’s review, the recent work in Birmingham and now the to the original report would be the main UK political story of the day. Reasonable for

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