Local Enterprise Partnerships Driving Sustainable Private Sector Growth

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General Introduction Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) are encouraged by the Conservative’s direction of travel in devolving more funding and power to local areas, as outlined in your 2015 Election Manifesto. LEPs welcome the ambition in the Manifesto for the UK to become the most prosperous major economy in the world. We have a significant amount to offer government in the areas of decentralisation and economic growth. LEPs have created private sector led partnerships that bring together business and civic society leaders to drive sustainable private sector-led growth and job creation. We bring significant business voice to the devolution debate through the more than 3,000 Private Sector Individuals who are involved in leadership roles on LEP Boards, sub-groups and interest groups. LEPs are ready to carry on leading, and will ensure business leadership continues and is further strengthened. LEPs have proven we are extremely effective at leading economic growth, creating over 100,000 new jobs to date and levering in £4bn of private sector investment to date. We are capable of more innovation and further delivery, forecasting we will help business create 750,000 new jobs and train almost 500,000 learners by 2021. The table below highlights what LEPs have delivered, and forecast to deliver. The annex contains examples of some stunning things that LEPs have achieved.

The Business Representative Organisations are supportive of LEPs and say...

“The private sector must continue to be at the centre of local economic strategy and be enabled to engage in and lead the local debate on what needs to be done to make the private sector more productive and successful. LEPs have a key role in ensuring local strategic economic leadership is responsive to the needs of local business and local people.” British Chamber of Commerce

“A strong business voice at the local level, led by more influential Local Enterprise Partnerships, will be essential in determining local investment priorities. These priorities, where already established, must be allowed to bed in rather than be reinvented so that local businesses start to see tangible results.” EEF - the manufacturers’ organization

 

“Our members expect Local Enterprise Partnerships to be business-led with a clear strategic focus that allows them to deliver the challenges set out by government.” Federation of Small Businesses

“It is important that local areas develop the governance arrangements that allow Local Enterprise Partnerships to function alongside, and as a critical part of, wider local governance arrangements.” Institute of Directors

LEPs have delivered to date…

LEPs forecast to deliver by 2021…

103,000 new Jobs Created

750,000 new Jobs Created

48,000 Learners Trained

490,000 Learners Trained

37,000 new Businesses Created

70,000 new Businesses Created

46,000 Businesses Supported

250,000 Businesses Supported

22,000 new Homes

360,000 new Homes

£4bn of Private Sector Leverage

£16bn of Private Sector Leverage

£700m spent on Infrastructure

£6bn spent on Infrastructure

Figures supplied by Local Enterprise Partnerships – May 2015

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LEPs are delighted that the Conservative Party recognises the achievements we have delivered over the past five years and continues to support LEPs’ role to promote more jobs and growth. LEPs understand the importance of economic rebalancing across the UK and the responsibility of the private sector in supporting the delivery of government policy at a local level. LEPs will continue working with government to ensure that local areas across the country are able to benefit from greater responsibilities and freedoms to promote business growth. LEPs want to engage with government on how we can work together to further progress what we have achieved in growing our economies. We have provided some first thoughts on how LEPs can build on our success to date…

‘A business approach to economic growth’ 1. LEPs core role is to support private sector growth and productivity The LEP mission is to help the UK become the most prosperous major economy in the world. Every LEP continues to be committed to private sector growth being their core focus and rationale for being, and this is what keeps the private sector engaged. LEPs welcome government putting their full support behind this core role. Our partnership with government will work even more effectively if LEPs are given additional freedoms and flexibilities to exploit local opportunities to deliver a strong environment for business growth that supports an increase in overall productivity. 2. LEPs provide leadership and bring the voice of business LEPs provide strategic leadership that is responsive to the needs of local business and local people. We work in partnership across the private and public sectors, with representatives from local authorities education and the voluntary sectors. LEPs bring an incredibly valuable private sector voice that is at the heart of economic policy and decision-making. LEPs see this private sector voice as vital to continue delivering the economic recovery, and must remain at the centre of discussions on decentralisation.

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‘We are delivering results – and can do more’ 3. Let LEPs get on with the job Through our Strategic Economic Plans, LEPs have clear objectives and programmes which we are implementing swiftly and effectively. Over the past five years, LEPs have arrived at workable models and done exemplary work building strong local partnerships that have resulted in impressive Local Growth Deals. We started implementing our Deals in April 2015, and LEPs forecast we’ll deliver 750,000 new jobs and support almost ½ million learners. We ask that government don’t bring in any immediate and substantial changes to how we operate. This will threaten our track record and risks distracting LEPs from our central purpose of fostering the business growth and creating the jobs we’re forecasting to achieve. 4. LEPs seek greater devolution LEPs encourage a further genuine redirection of central budgets into a bigger pot for future rounds of the Local Growth Fund. LEPs know our geographies best, and our private sector leadership knows what solutions are required to meet business needs. There are a number of budgets where local business and communities having greater control over the resources and responsibilities needed to support and protect the economy would clearly benefit further local economic growth. The Skills agenda is one such budget that LEPs would like to discuss further decentralisation with government, and there will be other budgets such as the previous commitment by government to look at the European Programmes.

‘Working with government into the future’ 5. A joint evolution between LEPs and government LEPs are committed to working with government on any future evolution in our role. LEPs’ existing governance arrangements hold us firmly accountable to the local areas we ultimately serve. LEPs absolutely understand that with greater decentralisation will come greaterresponsibilities, and we are prepared to take these on in the most appropriate way. We want to avoid unnecessary layers of bureaucracy that risks interfering with the business-like effectiveness of LEPs. Our business community are ready to contribute to any discussions regarding the future evolution of LEPs. 3

6. Recognise local needs - there is no “one size fits all” Every LEP is different and our local arrangements will differ from place to place. Different LEP areas have different needs, priorities and opportunities. Our varied local arrangements, coupled with our local understanding, makes it possible for LEPs to implement activity that meets the needs of our business community. These differences provide our unique strengths. Given that LEPs are structured differently and are at different stages of maturity, we ask that government does not try to evolve LEPs to follow a single, centrally prescribed LEP model. 7. Celebrate the model of 39 LEPs it works locally and sub-nationally Any evolution in the LEP model should avoid working on a mistaken belief that “refining” the number of LEPs or structures to larger and fewer entities would create greater economies of scale or critical mass. This would be at the cost of detachment from the realities of local organisations and local partnerships working together to drive growth. Business does not recognise geographic boundaries and no LEP operates as an island. There are many examples of LEPs collaborating and we welcome the continued support from government as we further develop and continue to collaborate in appropriate areas of multiLEP working. 8. LEPs urge greater cross departmental co-ordination. LEPs could do even more with improved joinedup government thinking, connecting economic development areas across departments to help improve local delivery. One such example is skills funding and policy for which responsibility is shared by the Department for Education (DfE), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS). A consequence of this is that funding for skills is split between departments, and the Skills Funding Agency, making it harder for local providers to be responsive to the needs of businesses.

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9. Sustain and Build Private Sector Capacity in LEP Leadership LEPs are led by Boards comprising of the public, private and voluntary sectors, with our Chairs and many other members are drawn from business. Over 3,000 private sector individuals are involved directly on LEP Boards and sub-groups. The expectations put on Chairs (most of whom are voluntary) and private sector representatives require a significant amount of their time and involvement, which should not be underestimated. To make most use of their time and to help attract further and, importantly, sustained private sector commitment, LEPs want to work with government to lead the shaping of the next stages in the evolution of LEPs. 10. Adequately resource LEPs While LEPs work within streamlined structures, with lean teams and are committed to continue doing so at a fraction of the cost of the overheads of the Regional Development Agencies, there is general recognition that we are under-resourced for the size of the programmes we are being asked to deliver. We believe that government should grant LEPs core funding commensurate with our responsibilities. LEPs would also like to see a five-year commitment to any such core funding to allow for more effective financial planning. One way of providing core funding would be to offer LEPs flexibility to deploy an agreed percentage of their programme funds for local management and implementation.

To Sumarise: LEPs bring the voice of business and have enormous potential. We are ready to carry on leading and are strong advocates for the private sector to be firmly in the driving seat. LEPs need further help from government to coordinate support across departments, and grow the size of the Local Growth Fund. LEPs do not want to get distracted by structure changes, we are capable of innovation and more delivery. We welcome the opportunity to expand on the above points as the Conservative Manifesto is turned into policy.

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Annex - LEP Achievements Below are some examples of the stunning things LEPs have achieved to date. 1. Black Country LEP’s Access to Finance programme provided £55m of grants and loans to 332 local businesses between March 2013 and December 2014, triggering £90m private investment and creating or safeguarding 11,700 jobs. The LEP’s new Access to Finance team has been based in the Black Country Growth Hub since October 2014. In past 6 months it has: assisted 37 businesses assisted to secure finance (grants, loans, equity); £2.3m secured (grants, loans, equity) as a result of Growth Hub advice; this leveraged a further £2.1m, making a total of £4.4m; these projects created 85 new jobs, and safeguarded 119 existing jobs. 2. Buckinghamshire Thames Valley LEP have established Buckinghamshire Advantage (BA) a new delivery arm identifying and enabling the infrastructure investment for the commercial benefit of the county. A public / private partnership, BA has utilised Growing Places funding to accelerate 600 new homes in Aylesbury, advance the delivery of critical road infrastructure and is currently establishing a new 200ha employment led development opportunity. The Buckinghamshire Thames Valley LEP’s Business Growth Hub is truly business led. Buckinghamshire Business First is a £2.5million turnover business support and economic development organisation with a membership base of over 6,500 members which represents over 50% of the private sector employee base and is growing rapidly. Run by business for business, Buckinghamshire Business First has already directly supported over 5,750 businesses and delivered in excess of £8million of grant funding to SMEs. www.btvlep.co.uk  

Celebrate:

£30m

 30 million of GPF has been £ repaid by projects and LEPs have established sustainable revolving funds.

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3. Cheshire and Warrington LEP provided a £3m Growing Places Fund loan to help fund the access road to the Omega development in Warrington. The loan led directly to developments totalling over 100,000 sqm and generated 1,500 jobs. It was also the catalyst for the development of a further 100,000 sqm and the creation of another 1,300 jobs elsewhere on the site. In total, Cheshire and Warrington’s £3m loan has generated nearly £210 million of private sector investment. 4. Coast to Capital LEP worked with Brighton and Hove Council and local partners to deliver a successful combined £4m Regional Growth Fund programme which has supported over 50 small businesses in priority sectors, creating over 450 new jobs, and levering in £14m of private sector investment. The LEP has also led a consortium of universities, specialist sector organisations and international businesses to establish the Digital Catapult Centre Brighton, one of just three regional Digital Catapult Centres. The Catapult Centre will bring together the most innovative SMEs from Brighton’s renowned creative digital and ICT sector with specialist technical academic research expertise and big business know-how to explore new commercial applications on the leading edge of the digital economy. 5. Cornwall & Isles of Scilly LEP, in the last three years, has successfully bid for and overseen almost £19 million of investment through the Government’s Regional Growth Fund and the Growing Places Fund. This has directly supported 140 local businesses and is on track to create 3,100 jobs and safeguard 3,500 more by the time the funds are spent at the end of March next year. The Cornwall & IoS LEP estimates that a further £90 million of additional public and private investment has been leveraged by that original £19 million of funding. In the same period the Aerohub Enterprise Zone at Newquay Airport, for which the Cornwall & IoS LEP successfully bid, has created more than 200 jobs.

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6. Coventry and Warwickshire LEP has secured £300 million of government funding which has led to £330 million of private investment to improve skills, innovation and productivity and has already led to the creation of nearly 3,000 jobs. The Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub was opened in September 2014 and, in its first five months, the organisation has helped businesses in the area access £1.6 million of capital grants which has led to £10 million in private investment and created over 700 new jobs with 2,500 new jobs in the pipeline. Around 1,200 businesses in a myriad of sectors have been helped with two-thirds having never received business support before.

9. Dorset LEP’s Growth Hub, which was born out of the Strategic Economic Plan, is considered a national exemplar. Between April 2014 and March 2015 it saw 7,090 businesses engaged. 517 businesses received up to 3 hours assistance, with 199 businesses receiving intensive Specialists’ support exceeding the original target, resulting in 36 successful grant fund applications with viable business growth plans to create 190 new jobs across Dorset. Total value of contracts approved equals to £5,467,113 including match funding. Dorset LEP has allocated a further £250,000 of Growth Deal funding towards the Growth Hub to continue the support of its success.

7. Cumbria LEP through its Strategic Economic Plan, has a 4 pronged attack to maximise the unprecedented economic opportunity, which is taking place across the county. It is estimated that the investment which is taking place in the county will have an impact, in relative terms 30 times larger than the Olympics. As a result the initial growth deal allocation and the top up provides £47.7m to drive forward growth. Our initial allocation will deliver, at least 2000 jobs, allow 3,000 new homes to be built, deliver 62,000 sq metres of new or refurbished floor space and support over 500 learned to acquire skills for employment. This will provide the springboard for further investment and the utilisation of further investment from European investment and wider regional growth fund activity. Together all of these will work towards the successful delivery of sustainable economic growth in Cumbria. The partners in Cumbria are working together and are excited and energised by these future opportunities. 

10. Enterprise M3 have established a 5G Innovation Centre in partnership with the University of Surrey and a consortium of the top communication companies including Huwaei, Vodaphone and Samsung, as well as linked incubators across 6 other LEPs in the Greater Thames Valley (GTV) area. The 5G Centre will develop facilities and an additional 5G test bed network that will be made available to companies across the Enterprise M3 area and to GTV companies. These facilities will allow companies to take advantage of 5G technologies that will improve business growth. In the first 18 months the project is expected to create 200 new jobs, 20 new business start-ups locally, support 70 businesses through open innovation and leverage more than £10m of private sector investment.

8. Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire (D2N2) LEP’s Unlocking Investment for Growth (UI4G) programme has created over 400 new jobs and safeguarded a further 350 existing jobs. Funded by the UK’s Regional Growth Fund and the European Regional Development Fund, the UI4G programme has inspired business owners in the D2N2 area to invest over £20million, alongside grant support of £4.7million. Full details and case studies can be viewed on the D2N2 LEP website –

11. GFirst LEP’s Retail Pathfinder toolkit is a result of the work of GFirst’s Retail Sector Group with the Association of Town & City Management (ATCM)

Celebrate: LEPs work in partnership The 39 LEPs across England have mobilised significant support from the private sector. They have collaborated to powerful effect with Universities, Colleges and other learning providers. They have fought hard to bring the public, private and third sectors together in 39 very different places, with a clear focus on driving private sector productivity.

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and other partners, supported by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Feeding into the Government-backed retail Pathfinder initiative, the toolkit is a breakthrough to reinvigorate the economy of local high streets by identifying the strengths of a place, what type of retail centre it is, and how positive action can be taken to improve the retail offer.  12. Greater Birmingham & Solihull’s Institute of Translational Medicine, will open at the end of June 2015. This cutting edge facility will enable drugs and medical devices and products to be tested and brought swiftly to market. Led by Birmingham Health Partners, and supported by £12.5m from the GBSLEP’s City Deal, the ITM will bring together clinicians, academics and IT to support clinical trials. The ITM is expected to generate 600 new jobs in the first five years.  This is an excellent example of the facilitating role the LEP can play as it helped to bring together the University of Birmingham and University Hospital Birmingham to deliver this project which will have a significant impact not just locally, but for UK plc. It also helped to underline Greater Birmingham’s strengths in translational medicine which have now been augmented through further funding in the Growth Deal to support the delivery of a Life Sciences campus and further education skills provision. 13. Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough, when it was first created, the LEP asked businesses what the key barriers to business growth were. The top answer was the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon. A challenge the LEP was happy to tackle. The LEP committed £50 million to the scheme (funded by Enterprise Zone rates receipts) and worked with partners across the LEP area and beyond to secure a further £50 million of investment required to secure commitment from the Government to the upgrade. Work is now due to start in 2016, and to ensure that there is a steady supply of local workers to build the road the LEP has secured funding to create a Highways Academy at WATA which will create a miniature version of the A14 on its site in Huntingdon to create real world training conditions. The upgrade of the A14 will remove the biggest barrier to business growth in the LEP area, and enable significant business growth in the future. Find out more at www.lepnetwork.net

Celebrate: The establishment and provision of local business support through 39 local Growth Hubs - by April 2016 every local LEP will have one.

39 local Growth Hubs

14. Greater Lincolnshire LEP are taking food manufacturing seriously, including forming a Food Board, made up of leaders of the 25 largest food manufacturing companies in our area, launched our agrifood strategy, planned 3 Food Enterprise Zones, and started work on enhancing the National Centre for Food Manufacturing. 15. Greater Manchester LEP, over 2014-15 has through its strategic leadership of the Greater Manchester growth and reform agenda, supported a number of ground breaking achievements.  It has secured the Greater Manchester Growth Deal – a £533.3m investment between 2015 and 2021. From this deal, a fund of £170 million has already been allocated to improvements across the public transport and road network, developing Greater Manchester’s life sciences industry, and reforming public services.  The deal in its entirety will support a Transport Works Programme and a Skills Capital Programme. It will help to create 5,000 jobs, support over 75,000 people learning new skills and generate up to £140 million in public and private investment. 16. Heart of the South West LEP, as a result of two successful Growth Deal rounds, is managing a programme of investment of just under £500m, alongside a range of other activities including investing in skills to support the development of the Hinkley C power station and securing the UK’s only marine Enterprise Zone. One example of innovative local delivery led by the LEP is the highly successful Rural Growth Network pilot, which with a total package of investment of £13m is delivering 7 new enterprise centres or work hubs. As well as the development of these centres, RGN has also delivered business support programmes which

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have engaged over 3,500 businesses, and created over 130 jobs, 28 new businesses and 2,250sq.m of commercial floor space. In addition, 100 pupils are benefitting from a Community Entrepreneurship Programme and over 350 family businesses are being supported through the Family Business Growth Programme pilot. The whole programme is currently forecasting an uplift in economic productivity of £4.9m GVA. 17. Hertfordshire LEP established the A1(M) consortium and resulting advocacy campaign involving partners, MPs and businesses. This helped secure £50m in November 2014 to provide a smart motorway system to reduce congestion. They also supported the successful proposal for a Cell Therapy Manufacturing Catapult at Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, securing £55m for a resource that cements Hertfordshire’s life sciences credentials. On the Croxley Rail Link, the LEP Board has agreed to reallocate £37.35m from the M1/M25, A1(M) and A10/M11 packages to CRL in addition to the £50.5m allocated as part of their Growth Deal. 18. Humber LEP is leading the development of the Humber as the UK’s energy estuary, with major investments from multinational companies creating a UK and European centre of excellence for offshore wind.  The LEP has used Enterprise Zone status to fast-track the planning process and incentivise investment from large companies and SMEs, and accessed £15m from the Enterprise Zone Capital Grant Fund to accelerate site development.  Its pioneering work with statutory agencies, kick-started through the Hull & Humber City Deal, is helping to overcome barriers to development, while its £30m Growing the Humber grant programme has helped to spread the benefits across the local economy – exceeding its targets with over £106m private sector leverage and 2,100 jobs generated. 19. Lancashire Enterprise Partnership developed a growth programme worth nearly £1 billion, including the £454 million Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire City Deal, which will transform the area’s infrastructure, and the Lancashire Growth Deal which will see work continue on 30 major projects funded through £250m plus of government funding. They have welcomed the first tenants to the Lancashire Enterprise Zone, which now includes 8

part of the Blackpool Airport site, bringing the first of up to 13,000 jobs. BOOST Business Lancashire, the county’s £7.2m growth hub, has worked with 2,000 local SME businesses, creating 400 new jobs. 20. Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership has secured over £1bn government investment for Leeds City Region, through their City Deal, Growth Deal and other funding streams. Through the Business Growth Programme and Growing Places Fund, the LEP has provided investment that’s helped 350 small businesses to grow, creating a projected 3,500 jobs for local people. In total, the LEP has provided support to over 3,000 businesses, helping them to achieve their growth ambitions. Through local skills initiatives, the LEP has created over 1,000 apprenticeship opportunities in local small businesses. They have also supported 400 companies to grow by investing in their workforce’s skills through their five three one initiative; and secured £17.5m government funding to deliver a LEP skills service, supporting 3,000 small and mediumsized enterprises to meet their skills need by March 2017. Importantly, the Leeds LEP secured the funding and powers to build a 21st Century transport network in the City Region, with the potential to unlock £2.4billion of economic growth and create up to 20,000 jobs. This will complement wider investment in infrastructure that will deliver the LEP’s ambition to create an economic powerhouse in the north. 21. Leicester & Leicestershire’s RGF Grant Programme has been one of the most successful in the country and it has helped raise the LEP’s profile on a local and regional level. Local businesses are now actively looking to the LLEP as source of growth funding, for business information, help advice and guidance, and other local organisations seek out the LLEP to engage and form synergies. The LLEP’s overall £21million grant programme has helped nearly 200 businesses across a number of sectors ranging from engineering and textile firms to waste management and manufacturing companies, providing grants from £5,000 to £1million. Importantly, nearly 3,000 jobs have been created or safeguarded across Leicester and Leicestershire through the programme. As their successful RGF programme draws to a close, LLEP look to use their new growth hub, the ‘LLEP Business Gateway,’ Contact us on [email protected]

to develop an Access to Finance package that has a simple point of entry for businesses to look for funding support – with a number of potential funds behind the scenes from banks, grants, equity finance, loans and crowd-funding opportunities. 22. Liverpool City Region LEP created and managed Advicefinder, a new Commercial Advice matchmaking service www.advicefinder.co.uk for business in the City Region with 300 registered commercial advisers. This forms the core online system for their Business Growth Hub. The Liverpool LEP also established Superport as a highly respected logistics initiative for Northern UK, attracting interest and investment nationally and internationally. 23. London Enterprise Panel has leveraged nearly £60m of private investment on top of the LEP’s £25m investment in the London Co-Investment Fund, a LEP initiated project aimed at addressing the current SME finance gaps. The LEP was awarded £58m of Government funding (Growth Deal Round 2) to support up to 2,400 new jobs, revitalise London’s high streets, build new training facilities and create exciting new places of work. The LEP has secured a £12m investment to fast track redevelopment of an iconic former flour factory in the heart of the Royal Docks Enterprise Zone in East London. 24. New Anglia LEP’s Growing Business Fund, since April 2013, has awarded grants worth almost £8.9 million to 93 businesses across Norfolk and Suffolk, forecasting to create 1,173 jobs. It has also helped secure £51m in additional private investment. A GBF online video showcasing four case studies is available at www.newanglia.co.uk/growing-business-fund 25. Northamptonshire’s Enterprise Advisers are part of a national pilot responding to Lord Young’s ‘Enterprise for All’ report, which involves almost half of Northamptonshire’s secondary schools working directly with business to better link the world of education with the world of work. A senior business leader has been appointed to each school to help develop their economy and enterprise strategy and then bring in business colleagues to deliver

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Celebrate: LEPs do not operate as islands There are many examples where LEPs are working together on cross LEP transport schemes, sharing knowledge on business support delivery, or partnering across LEP boundaries on financial instruments. LEPs know that business doesn’t operate within boundaries. this. A significant programme of activity is in place which includes: Apprenticeship Fairs; Skills Show for year 10; Higher Apprenticeship Conference for Employers; Employer Open Door Programme; Teacher Training, Pop Up Job Shops (for pupils and parents); developing Apprentice Ambassadors, and providing consultancy support on strategic planning for those schools with least capacity. The programme will reach up to 20,000 young people. 26. North East LEP has secured £55m from Growing Places and Regional Growth Funding.  All has been provided as loan finance to create 2,500 direct jobs and £172m of private sector investment, and is beginning to be repaid to enable more business to be supported and more jobs to be created. The North East Enterprise Zone has created over 1,300 higher value jobs in the automotive and offshore sectors, and is continuing to develop sites and attract investors. 27. Oxfordshire LEP’s Growth Hub was launched in 2014 with approx. £2m RGF money. As at the end of March 2015 the Growth Hub has: created 49 private sector jobs with a further 288 planned (their overall target is 214 jobs created by March 2017 which they are on track to exceed); achieved £3.75m private sector match with more in the pipeline (overall target is £4m by March 2016); in May 2015 agreed £148k additional grant money from Lancaster University to be spent by the end of June 2016. Their grants delivery partners have very strong pipelines which are over-subscribed and are able to get grant money out to end beneficiaries very quickly. The additional grant money allowed the LEP to return to and slightly exceed their original targets.

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28. Sheffield City Region LEP secured a £325 million Growth Deal to start to deliver its vision for 70,000 jobs and 6,000 businesses. Through the deal, the City Region is delivering a programme of fifteen key schemes that will unlock over £5 billion of investment, 12,000 jobs, 3.1 million square metres of new work space and 14,000 new homes. It is creating a Skills Bank – a single, flexible fund, which will broker ‘deals’ with individual companies and provide training for up to 40,000 people in work. It has used RGF money to support 130 businesses and create 2500 jobs through its ‘Unlocking Business Growth’ programme and its £52m top-up will create over 3,000 further jobs. In 2015 it will launch its Growth Hub which will simplify local business support for small and medium sized businesses. 29. Solent LEP has utilised investment from the Regional Growth Fund to establish an SME  funding programme, Bridging the Gap, offering grant support to young entrepreneurs, new start-ups, growing SMEs and businesses effected by economic shocks. The fund has been hugely popular and, to date, investments from the fund have led to the creation of 54 new businesses, supported 70 established businesses to create and safeguard jobs, and resulted in 640 private sector jobs in the Solent economy. The Solent LEP has also prioritised investment in developing the local skills pipeline to enable local residents to take up employment opportunities being created. In September 2014, a new £12m Centre of Excellence in Engineering & Manufacturing Advanced Skills Training (CEMAST), based on the Solent Enterprise Zone and backed with a £6m Solent LEP investment, opened to more than 900 full and part time learners, becoming the main learning centre for apprenticeship programmes at a range of leading employers including; BAE Systems, GE Aviation and Virgin Atlantic. 30. South East LEP’s over-riding focus over recent months has been on ensuring that Growth Deal and European funding flows to local areas for delivery as quickly as possible and pressing for maximum flexibility from Government. Through joint working across SE LEP they have together: won a £480m Growth Deal with Government (£30m has already been devolved to federal areas); designed and delivered an £18m Skills Capital competition; jointly established a £50m SEFUND investment fund; 10

Celebrate: LEPs catalyst role in £2.85bn being allocated from Regional Growth Fund (RGF) programmes will lever £16bn from private sector investment, projected to deliver almost 600k jobs by mid 2020s. launched the first tranche of £180m EU funding for business and skills; agreed an Assurance Framework giving real confidence in SE LEP and enabling Growth Deal funding to be received annually in advance. 31. South East Midlands LEP’s Velocity Business Support service has reached 14,206 companies to-date, offering personalised support for business growth across the South East Midlands. The service has intensively assisted 1,244 companies through local advisers and has to-date awarded £1,038,872 to 184 companies - from a new greyhound track at Towcester Racecourse to a cider distillery in Milton Keynes - helping to create more than 494 jobs and safeguard 424 others. Velocity is fully integrated into the area’s 7 Universities, 10 Colleges and 4 UTCs, as well as SEMLEP’s Enterprise Zone in Northampton and the South East Midland’s 36 innovation & enterprise centres. 32. Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire LEP established an Education Trust to bring business and skills providers together. They have invested £3m in advanced manufacturing skills hubs, supported by business, funded 50:50 with Government.  This is already providing training to 3,000 learners. As one of the Adult Skills Pilot areas, this LEP is influencing the £39m invested in local FE per year. 33. Swindon and Wiltshire LEP’s two rounds of LGF have secured £141m for a wide range of projects including plans to build 15,100 homes, creating over 9,000 jobs in Trowbridge, Wichelstowe and Eastern Villages. The latter site providing 8,000 homes is the largest urban expansion in England. Porton Science Park close to Salisbury will leverage £60m of private sector money and create 2,000 jobs to match the £8.6m LGF, European and other public sector investment providing long term sustainable growth Contact us on [email protected]

through life sciences companies and other high-tech sectors. All of these projects and many more will be underpinned by the innovative City Deal which will deliver business led, Higher Education in the area via a network of Universities upskilling 18,000 Service Leavers and local employees via a virtual campus. 34. Tees Valley Unlimited (TVU) has, since 2010, worked with companies to secure over £1.35bn of private sector inward investment. A significant example is the attraction of the American company Air Products who has invested over £600m in two identical waste to energy plants on TVU’s thriving Enterprise Zone. In addition TVU has been active in securing substantial investment from the Regional Growth Fund Pinchpoint monies and more latterly the Local Growth Fund, all of which will generate a further £1bn of private sector investment creating more than 3,000 new jobs. 35. Thames Valley Berkshire LEP established a SME Funding Escalator with £7.3m of Growing Places Funds in 2012, designed to invest in high-growth potential SMEs. Approximately £2m of funding is already loaned across 30 companies. In April 2015 the Escalator won the category of “Alternative Lender of the Year” in the Thames Valley Deals Awards, beating off a specialist lending subsidiary of a bank and a private investment firm. 36. The Marches LEP has established a Redundant Building Grant Programme, securing an initial £1.5m from Regional Growth Funds. The Programme supported 47 businesses to expand within previously vacant or underutilised, refurbished premises. These businesses are creating 326 sustainable private sector jobs and investing a further £4.08m.  To date, 110 new jobs are on the ground within a diverse range of companies from IT firms to manufacturers, and professional services to creative industries. Private sector enthusiasm for this simple, innovative scheme led to the award of a further £1.5m RGF to the Marches LEP to extend and administer the scheme across both Marches and Worcestershire LEPs. A further £1m has been allocated from this extension, with an additional 139 jobs and private sector leverage of £2.5m secured.

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37. West of England LEP, through their City Deal, have built upon the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone by identifying 5 Enterprise Areas as a focus for growth. These are being supported by retained business rate growth pooled in their £500m Economic Development Fund providing targeted new infrastructure schemes. The RGF West of England Growth Fund has supported some 500 SMEs with grants totalling £12.5m already paid, creating over 800 jobs. The combined LEP programmes have delivered more than 4,000 jobs to date and substantial private sector investment. 38. Worcestershire LEP (WLEP) is working to strengthen the relationship between schools and businesses and develop the skills of the future workforce. The Connecting Schools and Business programme, which all high schools in the County have signed up to, assists businesses in offering meaningful work experience placements to those who have an interest in their work specialism. Participation in apprenticeship programmes have now exceeded 10,000, more than four times those in 2011 with all partners working under the ‘Worcestershire Apprenticeship’ brand which was launched at the first annual Worcestershire Apprenticeship Awards in 2014 hosted by The BBC’s The Apprentice, Nick Hewer. In Worcestershire, projects have led to a reduction in the number of youth unemployed – 7.6% in 2010/11 to 2.6% in January 2015. Examples of other projects currently taking place includes: a one-stop shop in hotspot areas offering impartial advice and guidance; an Apprenticeship Clearing House that will be launched in September 2015, and a new innovative Careers app that will be available soon. 39. York, North Yorkshire & East Riding LEP have innovated a service for small businesses to get professional advice, this included their innovative pop up cafés delivered across their large rural area, which has received national acclaim. They also supported a bid for over £50m in the UK Agri-tech Industrial Strategy, which will bring new innovations and assets to the region, cementing their area as a world leader in the bioeconomy.

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Local Enterprise Partnerships Tweet us! 1. Black Country 2. Buckinghamshire Thames Valley 3. Cheshire & Warrington 4. Coast to Capital 5. Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly 6. Coventry & Warwickshire 7. Cumbria 8. Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham & Nottinghamshire 9. Dorset 10. Enterprise M3 11. GFirst 12. Greater Birmingham & Solihull 13. Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough 14. Greater Lincolnshire 15. Greater Manchester 16. Heart of the South West 17. Hertfordshire 18. Humber 19. Lancashire 20. Leeds City Region 21. Leicester & Leicestershire 22. Liverpool City Region 23. London 24. New Anglia 25. North East 26. Northamptonshire 27. Oxfordshire 28. Sheffield City Region 29. Solent 30. South East 31. South East Midlands 32. Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire 33. Swindon & Wiltshire 34. Tees Valley 35. Thames Valley Berkshire 36. The Marches 37. West of England 38. Worcestershire 39. York, North Yorkshire & East Riding

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