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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 Business, Innovation and Skills Committee 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

By:
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 Michael Heseltine, 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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Why we’re getting LEPs ‘on the cheap’

Frustration at limited funding for Local Enterprise Partnerships, businesses warn

By:
Published August 8, 2012, in LEPs


Local Enterprise Partnerships are at risk of failing because their administrative costs are not being properly funded by the Government, an influential business lobbying group has warned.

The LEPs, which were set up to take over from regional development agencies in boosting economic redevelopment and job creation, are over-reliant on grants from local councils and are failing to find significant private sector support.

The Federation of Small Businesses, in a submission to an all-party parliamentary inquiry into the progress of LEPs, warns of

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City set to axe planning restrictions in bid for jobs and growth drive

By:
Published January 30, 2012, in LEPs, Politics


This is Digbeth High Street of Digbeth as view...

This is Digbeth High Street of Digbeth as viewed from a platform in Selfridges in Birmingham, England. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The precise location of Birmingham’s Enterprise Zones has become clearer following the publication of detailed maps showing where new businesses will be able to set up without having to obtain planning permission.

City council planners are applying for fast-track Local Development Orders (LDOs) to much of Digbeth and the whole of Birmingham Science Park Aston.

The LDOs cut across normal regulations by allowing entrepreneurs, start-up companies and established firms to change the use of buildings without having to go through the time-consuming and costly process of applying for planning approval.

The council says its aim is to create hundreds of jobs by encouraging the growth of financial services, creative, digital media and ICT businesses in Digbeth and at the science park.

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