England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) are voluntary partnerships between

local authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

and businesses, set up in 2011 by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to help determine local economic priorities and lead economic growth and job creation within the local area. They carry out some of the functions previously carried out by the regional development agencies which were abolished in March 2012. In certain areas, funding is received from the UK government via growth deals. After the March 2017 merger of Northamptonshire LEP into South East Midlands LEP, there were 38 local enterprise partnerships in operation.

History

The abolition of regional development agencies and the creation of local enterprise partnerships were announced as part of the

June 2010 United Kingdom budget The June 2010 United Kingdom Budget, officially also known as Responsibility, freedom, fairness: a five-year plan to re-build the economy, was delivered by George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the House of Commons in his budget speec ...

. On 29 June 2010 a letter was sent from the

Department for Communities and Local Government The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), formerly the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for housing, communities, local government ...

and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to local authority and business leaders, inviting proposals to replace regional development agencies in their areas by 6 September 2010. On 7 September 2010, details were released of 56 proposals for local enterprise partnerships that had been received. On 6 October 2010, during the Conservative Party Conference, it was revealed that 22 had been given the provisional 'green light' to proceed and others might later be accepted with amendments. 24 bids were announced as successful on 28 October 2010. LEPs were set up on a voluntary basis without any public funding and struggled to make progress. A report by

Michael Heseltine Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, (; born 21 March 1933) is a British politician and businessman. Having begun his career as a property developer, he became one of the founders of the publishing house Haymarket. Heseltine served ...

in October 2012, ''No Stone Unturned'', was largely accepted by Government, and proposed delegating certain funds from central government to LEPs. Changes included: * allocating a share of a £1,400m Local Growth Fund to generate growth, through competitive bidding; * getting LEPs to draw up plans for local growth as the basis for negotiation on the money in the Fund * realigning the management of the EU Structural and Investment Funds in England to follow the plans made by LEPs.

City deals

The LEP areas of Greater Birmingham and Solihull,

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

Leeds City Region The Leeds City Region is a local enterprise partnership city region located in West Yorkshire, England. Prior to the West Yorkshire devolution deal, the partnership covered parts of South and North Yorkshire. According to the Office for Nationa ...

, North Eastern,

Sheffield City Region The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority is the combined authority for South Yorkshire in England, with powers over transport (public transport and major trunk roads only), economic development and regeneration. It covers a total area of 3 ...

, and West of England were included in the first wave of 'city deals' in 2012.

Growth deals

Local growth deals, for projects that benefit the local area and economy, began to be made to some LEPs in 2014.

List of LEPs

Local enterprise partnership areas are allowed to overlap, so a local authority is permitted to be part of more than one local enterprise partnership.The local authority areas taking part in two LEPs are Aylesbury Vale, Barnsley, Bassetlaw, Bolsover, Bromsgrove, Cannock Chase, Cherwell, Chesterfield, Croydon, Derbyshire Dales, East Hampshire, East Staffordshire, Forest Heath, Harrogate, King's Lynn and West Norfolk, Lewes, Lichfield, New Forest, North East Derbyshire, North East Lincolnshire, North Hertfordshire, North Lincolnshire, Redditch, St Edmundsbury, Tamworth, Test Valley, Uttlesford, Winchester, Wyre Forest and York. Currently there are 38 local enterprise partnerships in operation:

Notes

References

External links

The LEP NetworkEmbeddable map of all the LEPs
{{Economic development in England Economy of England Local government in England 2011 establishments in England Government agencies established in 2011