Local enterprise partnerships (LEP) are finally succumbing to a threat by ministers to withhold funding from them if they refuse to remove overlapping boundaries.

Leeds City Region LEP has ‘reluctantly' agreed to shrink in half, giving up on Barnsley MBC, Craven and Selby DCs, Harrogate BC and York City Council from April, with just Bradford and Leeds city councils, Calderdale and Kirklees MBCs and Wakefield Council remaining as members.