A briefing paper examined local enterprise partnerships (designed to replace regional development agencies by 2012).
Source: Adam Mellows-Facer, Local Enterprise Partnerships, Standard Note SN/EP/5651, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2010-Dec
A report by a committee of MPs said that there was a potential funding gap in the new local enterprise partnerships (LEPs – joint local authority and business ventures designed to replace regional development agencies by 2012). It said that the government needed to set aside funds to support LEPs that lacked capacity to establish themselves at inception.
Source: The New Local Enterprise Partnerships: An initial assessment, First Report (Session 2010-11), HC 434, House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | NLGN press release | Public Finance report
Date: 2010-Dec
An article examined proposals by the new government to replace Regional Development Agencies with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). It said that the move was 'profoundly anti-regionalist' and amounted to recentralization in disguise, given that many economic development functions were being taken back by Whitehall. The problem risked being exacerbated by a fragmentation of LEPs into small territorial units, and by a lack of resources.
Source: Gill Bentley, David Bailey and John Shutt, 'From RDAs to LEPs: a new localism? Case examples of West Midlands and Yorkshire', Local Economy, Volume 25 Number 7
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Dec
A think-tank report said that government plans to dismantle tailored business support would lead inevitably to the decline of deprived areas.
Source: Big Productive Society: Making deprived areas strong again, Centre for Local Economic Strategies/Furness Enterprise
Links: Report | CLES press release
Date: 2010-Dec
An article examined the strengths and weaknesses of the city or sub-regional approach to economic development. Although proposals by the new government for 'rescaling' sub-national governance away from the regional level created the necessary 'space' to develop sub-regional bodies, and offered genuine opportunities for both city and county local economic partnerships, the scale of the sub-regional challenge should not be underestimated – particularly given the context of economic recession and major reductions in the public sector.
Source: Keith Shaw and Paul Greenhalgh, 'Revisiting the "missing middle" in English sub-national governance', Local Economy, Volume 25 Issue 5/6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Nov
A report said that even on favourable assumptions about a resumption (and acceleration) in the pre-recession decline in the number of benefit recipients, there was little hope that claimant rates in the weakest local economies would be reduced to acceptable levels by 2020. There was a powerful case for locally targeted job creation schemes as an integral part of efforts to bring down claimant numbers.
Source: Christina Beatty, Steve Fothergill, Tony Gore and Ryan Powell, Tackling Worklessness in Britain's Weaker Local Economies, Centre for Regional, Economic and Social Research/Sheffield Hallam University
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Nov
A report (by an official advisory body) examined how the interests and potential contribution of rural economies and communities could be recognized within the new structure of local enterprise partnerships in England.
Source: Recognising Rural Interests Within Local Enterprise Partnerships, Commission for Rural Communities/Countryside Agency
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Nov
The government published a White Paper on local growth, designed to 'rebalance the economy and drive sustainable growth'. It proposed to: shift power to local communities and businesses – by establishing local enterprise partnerships of local business and civic leaders; increase confidence to invest – by creating the right conditions for growth through a 'consistent and efficient' framework for investment, an effective planning framework, and new incentives to make sure local communities benefited from development; and tackle barriers to growth that the market would not address itself, and support investment that would have a long-term impact on growth.
Source: Local Growth: Realising every place's potential, Cm 7961, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills/TSO
Links: White Paper | DBIS press release | DCLG press release | BCC press release | BPF press release | CBI press release | Centre for Cities press release | Friends of the Earth press release | IPPR press release | Labour Party press release | LGA press release | Liberal Democrats press release | NLGN press release | OPM blog | Work Foundation press release | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report
Date: 2010-Oct
A paper examined the evidence on geographical differences in economic performance across England.
Source: Understanding Local Growth, Economics Paper 7, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Oct
A report highlighted the value of local enterprise partnerships, through which local authorities and businesses could work together on issues such as skills, housing, and transport in order to achieve better economic outcomes. Helping cities to maximize private sector jobs growth and manage public spending cuts was vital if the economy were to experience anything approaching a strong recovery.
Source: Andrew Carter, Kieran Larkin and Lena Tochtermann, Beyond the Boundaries: Why cross-boundary collaboration matters and what this means for local enterprise partnerships, Centre for Cities in association with IBM
Links: Report | Centre for Cities press release
Date: 2010-Sep
A think-tank report called for more realism from the coalition government and the cities across England pursuing 'bandwagon' sectors – from green industries to creative clusters. Although these specialist sectors were important for the national economic recovery, and particularly for productivity, they would not be the generators of the majority of England's future jobs.
Source: Paul Swinney, Kieran Larkin and Chris Webber, Firm Intentions: Cities, private sector jobs and the coalition, Centre for Cities
Links: Report | Centre for Cities press release
Date: 2010-Sep
A think-tank report said that government plans to encourage private enterprise by waiving national insurance contributions would not work in England's most deprived areas. Between 2002 and 2009 only 1 in 4 of all new enterprises created in England had been based in the most deprived areas, despite decades of government programmes encouraging enterprise in regions with high unemployment.
Source: Faiza Shaheen and Garry Haywood, Filling the Jobs Gap: Why enterprise-based regeneration isn't working, New Economics Foundation
Links: Report | NEF press release
Date: 2010-Jul
A report by a committee of MPs said that a £1 billion government project to regenerate the sites of former coal mines in England had been poorly co-ordinated, and lacked vision.
Source: Regenerating the English Coalfields, Sixteenth Report (Session 2009-10), HC 247, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | Telegraph report | BBC report | New Start report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Mar
A report examined how local authorities in England were responding to their impending statutory duty (from April 2010) to prepare a 'local economic assessment' (LEA) for their locality.
Source: Local Economic Assessments: How are local authorities rising to the challenge?, Centre for Local Economic Strategies
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Feb
An article examined the importance in regeneration and competitiveness of 'entrepreneurship enabling' – the work of people who created the frameworks that encouraged entrepreneurial activity. It said that its role remained largely unquantified and unsung, and that policy-makers should ensure its contribution was given greater recognition.
Source: John Thompson, '"Entrepreneurship enablers" – their unsung and unquantified role in competitiveness and regeneration', Local Economy, Volume 25 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Feb
A think-tank report said that local authorities should channel funding to areas of skills training that would most benefit long-term employment and economic growth in their locality. It recommended that 'skills accounts' be reshaped to give individuals more choice over the training they received; and to give local councils greater democratic strategic control, by enabling them to vary the public subsidy for different skills training options based on existing and future local economic needs.
Source: Nick Hope and Anna Turley, We Can Work It Out: Local employment and skills for economic recovery, New Local Government Network
Links: Summary | Local Government Chronicle report
Date: 2010-Jan