England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) were voluntary partnerships between local authorities 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 carried out some of the functions previously carried out by the regional development agencies which were abolished in March 2012. In certain areas, funding was received from the UK government via growth deals. Funding for LEPs was withdrawn by the

Rishi Sunak Rishi Sunak (born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2022 to 2024. Following his defeat to Keir Starmer's La ...

Conservative government in April 2024 and their functions were assumed by local authorities, some of whom have formed Business Boards as replacements.

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. On 29 June 2010, a letter was sent from the Department for Communities and 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. Having begun his career as a property developer, he became one of the founders of the publishing house Haymarket Media Group in 1957. Heseltine se ...

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 ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, Leeds City Region, North Eastern,

Sheffield City Region The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) 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 ...

, 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.

Abolition and successor bodies

The

Conservative government withdrew funding for the partnerships in April 2024 and transferred their functions to the

Greater London Authority The Greater London Authority (GLA), colloquially known by the Metonymy, metonym City Hall, is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved Regions of England, regional governance body of Greater London, England. It consists of two political ...

, combined authorities and upper-tier local authorities (i.e. county councils or unitary authorities). In the months after funding was withdrawn from LEPs in April 2024, many local authorities and combined authorities formed Business Boards to assume the functions previously carried out by LEPs.

List of LEPs

Local enterprise partnership areas were allowed to overlap, so a local authority was permitted to be part of more than one local enterprise partnership.The local authority areas taking part in two LEPs were 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. After the March 2017 merger of Northamptonshire LEP into South East Midlands LEP, there were 38 local enterprise partnerships in operation.

Notes

References

External links

The LEP NetworkBusiness Board 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