CLA Calls for Greater Clarity on Local Enterprise Partnerships

The Country Land and Business Association in the South West is calling for more openness and greater clarity in the way bids to form Local Enterprise Partnerships are determined.

The move follows the coalition Government’s announcement that only two bids from the whole of the South West region have been successful and CLA South West Director, John Mortimer, says it is important that people know why.

LEPs, he said, were central part of the Coalition Government’s localism agenda and local authorities had been working with business groups to set up new partnerships which would drive economic and planning policies forward.
“The Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, has said that the Government’s vision for local enterprise partnerships will help transforms the economic geography of the country – the problem, it seems, is that too few people know exactly what that vision is.”
The two proposals given the thumbs up were in Cornwall and the West Country area – which includes North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Bath and Bristol – other areas failed to get through the first stage.

The CLA has welcomed the recognition given to the importance of the rural economy in the Government’s Local Growth White Paper but says that makes it essential that the needs of rural communities and the economic activity which takes place in rural areas are properly understood by - and represented on - Local Enterprise Partnerships.

“But we need greater clarity from Government in terms of their expectations for the LEPs which failed to gain approval – what do they have to change to become acceptable? The CLA in the South West has been fighting for proper representation on the boards of the LEPs and we need to know what we have to do to win that recognition,” he said.

The CLA, he said was unique in that its members owned and managed the raw materials of economic activity – land and buildings. Furthermore, their enterprise and entrepreneurial skills were at the very core of the economic well-being of rural areas. Shifting government to the localism agenda offered an opportunity to plan a more secure future for the region’s rural communities at a local level– but he warned that this would require a successful and sustainable rural economy allied with a flexible, integrated and sustainable planning system with policies which all pulled in the same direction.

“CLA members manage land for food production and forestry, generate jobs, create business opportunities, provide investment and housing for local people and are responsible for the environment and the landscape which is such an integral part of our tourist industry. In short, CLA members play a critical role in ensuring economic diversity and vitality across the whole of our region – and they should be properly represented in the new partnerships.

“All of this demands the in-depth understanding of the balance between economic drivers and environmental sustainability which only the CLA can bring to the table. I am concerned that this opportunity is not allowed to slip by and that the CLA is offered an opportunity to contribute to the partnership which will drive the future of economic enterprise forward,” he said.