Local enterprise partnership
In England, local enterprise partnerships are 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 carry out some of the functions previously carried out by the regional development agencies which were abolished in March 2012.
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. 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 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
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. Currently there are 38 local enterprise partnerships in operation:| Local enterprise partnership | Local authority areas |
| Black Country | West Midlands : Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton |
| Buckinghamshire Thames Valley | Buckinghamshire |
| Cheshire and Warrington | Cheshire East Cheshire West and Chester Warrington |
| Coast to Capital | Brighton and Hove East Sussex : Lewes Greater London : Croydon Surrey : Epsom and Ewell, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, Tandridge West Sussex |
| Cornwall and Isles of Scilly | Cornwall Isles of Scilly |
| Coventry and Warwickshire | Warwickshire West Midlands : Coventry |
| Cumbria | Cumbria |
| "D2N2" | Derby Derbyshire Nottingham Nottinghamshire |
| Dorset | Bournemouth Dorset Poole |
| Enterprise M3 | Hampshire : Basingstoke and Deane, East Hampshire, Hart, New Forest, Rushmoor, Test Valley, Winchester Surrey : Elmbridge, Guildford, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Waverley, Woking |
| GFirst LEP | Gloucestershire |
| Greater Birmingham and Solihull | Staffordshire : Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Tamworth West Midlands : Birmingham, Solihull Worcestershire : Bromsgrove, Redditch, Wyre Forest |
| Greater Cambridge and Greater Peterborough | Cambridgeshire Essex : Uttlesford Hertfordshire : North Hertfordshire Norfolk : King's Lynn and West Norfolk Suffolk : Forest Heath, St Edmundsbury Peterborough Rutland |
| Greater Lincolnshire | Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire North East Lincolnshire |
| Greater Manchester | Greater Manchester |
| Heart of the South West | Devon Somerset |
| Hertfordshire | Hertfordshire |
| Humber | East Riding of Yorkshire Kingston upon Hull North East Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire |
| Lancashire | Lancashire Blackburn with Darwen Blackpool |
| Leeds City Region | West Yorkshire |
| Leicester and Leicestershire | Leicester Leicestershire |
| Liverpool City Region | Halton Merseyside |
| London Enterprise Panel | Greater London |
| New Anglia | Norfolk Suffolk |
| North East | County Durham Northumberland Tyne and Wear |
| Oxfordshire | Oxfordshire |
| Sheffield City Region | Derbyshire : Bolsover, Chesterfield, Derbyshire Dales, North East Derbyshire Nottinghamshire : Bassetlaw South Yorkshire |
| Solent | Hampshire : East Hampshire, Eastleigh, Fareham, Gosport, Havant, New Forest, Test Valley, Winchester Isle of Wight Portsmouth Southampton |
| South East | East Sussex Essex Kent Medway Southend-on-Sea Thurrock |
| South East Midlands | Bedford Buckinghamshire : Aylesbury Vale Central Bedfordshire Luton Milton Keynes Northamptonshire Oxfordshire : Cherwell |
| Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire | Staffordshire Stoke-on-Trent |
| Swindon and Wiltshire | Swindon Wiltshire |
| Tees Valley | Darlington Hartlepool Middlesbrough Redcar and Cleveland Stockton-on-Tees |
| Thames Valley Berkshire | Bracknell Forest Reading Slough West Berkshire Windsor and Maidenhead Wokingham |
| The Marches | Herefordshire Shropshire Telford and Wrekin |
| West of England | Bath and North East Somerset Bristol North Somerset South Gloucestershire |
| Worcestershire | Worcestershire |
| York and North Yorkshire | North Yorkshire York |