Local Enterprise Partnerships

  • New funding: A helping hand for care leavers

    12 March 2024

    The Care Leavers’ Programme provides a backbone of support for young adults and the benefits will trickle back into our neighbourhoods, says Cllr Richard Kemp CBE.


  • Heseltine and Clark hit out over LEPs

    19 February 2024

    Two former Conservative Cabinet ministers have hit out at plans to wind up England’s 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP).


  • Devo and Christmas ghosts of past, present and future

    14 December 2023

    Alun Hughes spins a Christmas story about devolution, with Greg Clark as the ghost of Christmas past, looking at how the policy has shifted towards one more focused on empowering local leaders in England’s counties.


  • Uncertainty hangs over funding for growth projects

    16 October 2023

    Councils have voiced fresh concerns as they remain in the dark over future funding for responsibilities inherited from Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).


  • Saying goodbye to Local Enterprise Partnerships

    26 August 2023

    As we prepare to scrap Local Enterprise Partnerships, Abdool Kara asks what will we do next to drive sub regional growth


  • Boost for upper-tier councils after LEP decision

    04 August 2023

    Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) core functions are expected to be transferred to upper-tier local authorities in areas without a devolution deal by March, ministers have said.


  • County shelves combined authority plans

    26 July 2023

    Warwickshire CC has shelved plans to join the West Midlands Combined Authority due to a tight timescale.


  • Council funding plea ahead of LEP wind-down

    12 June 2023

    Council directors have called for the Government to protect them from a financial hit as Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) functions are transferred to English councils.


  • 'Difficult decisions' in store as LEPs axed

    23 March 2023

    Replacing Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) will not be easy, the Government has been warned.


  • Improving people’s lives through partnership

    21 March 2023

    Justin Galliford explains why improving people’s lives is a key ingredient in successful partnerships.


  • Budget 2023: Hunt sounds the death knell for LEPs

    15 March 2023

    Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has unveiled a Budget that has sounded the death knell for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), but revived the levelling up agenda.


  • Budget 2023: LEPs to be scrapped

    15 March 2023

    Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) are to be effectively abolished within a year, chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in the Budget.


  • Moving the money – Breaking the commissioning cycle

    14 March 2023

    Joe Coogan discusses why taking a more collaborative approach to day services and supported employment can deliver more successful outcomes and save local authorities money in the long term.


  • Oxford-Cambridge Arc makes top role redundant

    28 November 2022

    Uncertainty over the Government’s commitment to the Oxford-Cambridge Arc has forced the  group leading the vision to make the top job redundant.


  • Call for new PM to boost role of LEPs

    08 August 2022

    The incoming Conservative Prime Minister must better support small businesses through Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) if the UK is to ride the forthcoming recession, leadership candidates Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have been warned.


  • LEPs 'needlessly frozen out' on skills

    27 June 2022

    Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) are being ‘needlessly frozen out’ of bidding for skills funding, the chair of the LEP Network has complained.


  • LEPs due for integration into combined authorities by 2030

    06 April 2022

    Local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) will be integrated into combined authorities by 2030, tracking the pace of the Government’s devolution agenda.


  • LEPs remain in dark over future

    21 February 2022

    Key questions about the future functions and funding of local enterprise partnerships (LEP) remain unanswered weeks after the publication of the Levelling Up White Paper (LUWP).


  • Government commits to future of LEPs

    03 February 2022

    Local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) are to be integrated into devolution deals as part of the Levelling Up White Paper.


  • Towards a more viable localism

    26 January 2022

    Making English localism succeed needs a reform agenda for the whole of Government, says Dr Patrick Diamond. The centre and the local must work together to solve complex policy problems, not least by using city region mayors.