What does a successful local enterprise partnership look like?
Are LEPs in the final analysis likely to be any better than RDAs? -many of whom didn’t really get “rural.” Some of their CEOs are already being paid eye watering salaries in this world of public sector austerity. This article tells adds to the debate it begins thus:
Local enterprise partnerships , which unite local authorities and businesses, were formed in 2011 by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to help determine what was important locally and encourage economic growth. But since forming what have they achieved and how can their success be measured
David Marlow, director of Third Life Economics and a former local government chief executive, said: “There is a need for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to collaborate collectively, and with progressive councils, to define cohesive local solutions. This will make it harder for government to resist genuine devolution through ‘divide and rule’ competitions for funding.”
Nye Cominetti, a researcher at The Work Foundation, has said: “Our most striking observation was the level of frustration among the businesses involved in LEPs at the lack of progress made so far. Business involvement is at the heart of LEPs, yet half of businesses we interviewed expressed acute frustration at the absence of ‘action on the ground’.”