A LEP in the Right Direction

Almost 200 representatives from the region’s business community attended an event to discuss plans for a Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) yesterday at the Palace Hotel in Manchester.

The event, hosted by Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, began with an overview of LEPs from Chief Executive Angie Robinson. She emphasised the importance of involving business leaders in defining the structure of the LEPs.

Sir Howard Bernstein, Chief Executive of Manchester City Council, then gave an outline of the LEP proposals. He set out the recommendations from the Manchester Independent Economic Review last year, which included transforming Greater Manchester into a low carbon economy, driving the marketing and tourism industry forward to secure national and international recognition and connecting local businesses to international markets. Sir Howard stressed that the Greater Manchester LEP proposal would enable the area to meet those challenges and take responsibility for driving private sector growth.

Plans for a shadow LEP board were also outlined, which would aim to be operational in a short period of time and include representatives from the Business Leadership Council, Midas, Marketing Manchester, Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Manchester Solutions as well as key civic leaders. The formal LEP board would be appointed later. Subsequently, there would be an open recruitment process to find business representatives for the formal LEP board. Sir Howard said this would be the strongest base to integrate activities and demonstrate its capacity to Government.

Richard Guy, Group Chief Executive of Manchester Solutions, the service delivery arm of the Chamber, called for businesses to come forward with their suggestions of how they wanted the LEP proposal to look. He suggested a more integrated system of business support was required, which should include: the integration of services at a local level, more assistance for entrepreneurs, easier access to finance and the integration of business advice services and those delivering that advice.

Commenting on the event, Angie Robinson said: “The issue of how the LEPs will be formed and what they will look like has been very important to our members. We decided to hold this event to give the business community the chance to hear the proposals and have the opportunity to air their views. There are a large number of people who have a vested interest in the provision for businesses now that the Regional Development Agencies are being disbanded and today’s event has continued the dialogue and helped us to further understand some of the issues important to businesses.”

The audience asked questions about how the LEPs would be funded, the equality of spending across local authorities and how Greater Manchester’s bid would hope to compete with other groups looking to benefit. The panel suggested further conversations would be needed with government to get a clearer picture of how funding would be developed, but further details were not expected until after the comprehensive spending review in October.

The final LEP proposal will be submitted to the Government by 6 September.