North East joins local enterprise partnership network

The partnership, covering seven local authority areas, joins the 27 partnerships announced since the Government’s Local Growth White Paper was published in October last year.

A partnership for the Tees Valley area has already been invited to put its governance arrangements in place. Today’s announcement means the entire North East region is now covered by two local enterprise partnerships.
Local enterprise partnerships bring together local business and civic leaders, working to support their local economy. They will operate within a geography that reflects natural economic areas and will provide the vision, knowledge and strategic leadership needed to drive sustainable private sector growth and job creation in their area.

Mark Prisk said: “I’m delighted that we are able to ask the North Eastern partnership to join this growing network, which will play a crucial role in driving local economic growth across the country and creating a strong environment for business.

“We are continuing to assess proposals for further partnerships across England, so that soon more local communities will benefit from the knowledge and expertise of the private sector and the opportunities that growth brings.”

Greg Clark said: “This latest local enterprise partnership is a crucial one - completing the North East picture - and I’m pleased to give it the go ahead today. It is a testament to local ambition and ingenuity, and proof that central government does not need to micromanage. The ball is now in their court to work for the people of the North East, alongside the Tees Valley partnership.

“Local enterprise partnerships will bring people together - local authorities from across administrative divides, business leaders and civic leaders - in a common goal: to promote jobs, growth and prosperity in their local area.”

Business leaders have also established a North East Economic Partnership (NEEP) to work on issues of strategic importance across the North East to look at and promote co-operation between the two LEPs. This is an Independent Forum, which the Government supports. However, it is not a local enterprise partnership and therefore did not need Government approval.

The boundary of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership comprises the local authority areas of Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland, with a population of two million.

In September 2010 the Government received 62 responses to its invitation to form local enterprise partnerships. Proposals covered every part of England outside London. Today the North East partnership has been asked to set up its board and progress its proposals to the next stage. It joins the 27 partnerships approved since October. The total 28 now approved are:

- Black Country
- Birmingham & Solihull with E. Staffordshire, Lichfield &Tamworth
- Cheshire and Warrington
- Coast to Capital
- Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly
- Coventry & Warwickshire
- Cumbria
- Gt. Cambridge & Gt. Peterborough
- Greater Manchester
- Hertfordshire
- Kent, Greater Essex & East Sussex
- Leeds City Region
- Leicester & Leicestershire
- Lincolnshire
- Liverpool City Region
- New Anglia
- North Eastern
- Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby, & Derbyshire
- Oxfordshire City Region
- Sheffield City Region
- Solent
- S.E. Midlands
- Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire
- Tees Valley
- Thames Valley Berkshire
- The Marches
- West of England

Taken together, these 28 partnerships represent:
- 1.3m or 65% of all businesses (active enterprises) in England
- 16m employees (employee jobs figures) or 68% of all employees in England and;
- A population of 36m or 70% of England's population.

A map of approved local enterprise partnerships is available from http://geocommons.com/maps/32888

Proposals for partnerships were assessed in line with the expectations set out in the 29 June 2010 letter from the Business Secretary and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government: http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/regional/docs/10-1026-final-letter-local-enterprise-partnerships

Specifically, the Local Growth White Paper proposes that local enterprise partnerships will be able to consider a diverse range of roles, reflecting the differing local priorities in different areas, including:
- working with Government to set out key investment priorities, including transport infrastructure;
- coordinating proposals or bidding directly for the Regional Growth Fund;
- supporting high growth businesses, for example through involvement in bids to run the new growth hubs;
- participation in the development of national planning policy and ensuring business is involved in the consideration of strategic planning applications;
- lead changes in how businesses are regulated locally;
- strategic housing delivery, including pooling and aligning funding streams;
- working with local employers, Jobcentre Plus and learning providers to help local workless people into jobs;
- coordinating approaches to leverage funding from the private sector;
- exploring opportunities for developing incentives on renewable energy projects and Green Deal;
- involvement in the delivery of other national priorities such as digital infrastructure

Revised proposals from partnerships which have not yet been approved will be welcomed by Government as they become ready.