Chamber Calls For LEP Unity

A powerful group of business leaders has called on the key political decision-makers in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire to work together to establish a cross-county Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to fill the vacuum left by the East Midlands Development Agency.

Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce's Board of Directors has voted unanimously in favour of supporting a Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire LEP to be created in the wake of the government's decision to scrap emda. 

The Chamber's Board reached the decision after meeting earlier this week to consider a recent letter concerning LEPs, issued by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and Business Secretary Vince Cable. 

The Board, which is made up of high-profile business representatives from both counties, agreed that the Chamber should support the creation of an LEP large enough to sustain the various initiatives and functions facilitated by emda, which would be able to compete on a national level with other large LEPs, such as Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire.

It also agreed that any potential LEP should be designed to facilitate the following functions, at the very least:

  • Science and innovation promotion
  • Productivity
  • Inward investment
  • Business support
  • Sectoral development
  • Trade, procurement and supply chain
  • Enterprise and business start up 

In order to help establish a new cross-county LEP, the Chamber will work with the City and County councils in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire in the first instance, along with their respective Universities and Colleges of further education. It will also urge the district authorities in both counties to come on board. 

Organisations have until 6 September to submit their LEP bids to government for consideration.

George Cowcher, chief executive of the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber, said: "The Chamber's highest priority is to help build a powerful entity that can maximise the benefit for businesses in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire and develop a dynamic economy. 

"The Board's unanimous view is that Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire need to put any political or geographical differences aside and work together to create a single LEP that covers both counties and cities and is  capable of competing on a national scale.

"Resource and funding will be extremely scarce and a new LEP will need to be operationally cost effective, suggesting that it would need to be larger than a single county. Whilst the Chamber would support single-county LEPs if political consensus cannot be reached, this is far from the preferred scenario.

"The Chamber believes that single county LEPs would increase the risk of additional cost, which the business sector would not be prepared to contribute towards, along with the possibility that peripheral districts might choose to leave and join more powerful LEPs being established on their borders.

"The Chamber will now take a leading role in creating and organising the new LEP and will ensure all businesses are aware of and can contribute to this opportunity."


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