It's time to end the internal wrangling

Oct 20 2010 by Andrew Hebden, The Journal

THE news that seven North East councils have finally come together to agree plans for a single Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) will be welcomed in the business community.

There was a widely-held belief among many business leaders that any solution to this long-running saga which resulted in multiple LEPs would be unsatisfactory.

The prospect of the North East being represented by five separate LEPs was frankly ludicrous – and it is clear that the idea was deemed as such in London.

However, given Tees Valley’s decision to go it alone, the two-LEP model was probably the best outcome we could have hoped for.

At the CBI North East dinner last night, director-general Richard Lambert was critical of the process under which the LEPs are being established, branding it a shambles.

It is hard to disagree with this analysis given the mixed messages that have been emanating from the Government during the drawn-out negotiations and the apparent disagreements between the ministers responsible.

Sadly, the handling of the North East submissions can hardly be said to have been smooth either, with various local authorities guilty of putting political loyalties ahead of the good of the region.

This is a point that Ken McMeikan, the CBI’s new regional director, alludes to in his interview in The Journal today. His call for the region to pull together and stop being obsessed with inward-looking issues is an important message at a time when the region is in real danger of being left behind.

Of course, we still await a decision on the proposal for a regional economic partnership, which is potentially far more important.

But, however influential or otherwise the LEPs turn out to be, this inability among some political leaders to see the bigger picture is concerning. One can only hope that, should the new LEP proposal be accepted, such wrangling will not render it totally ineffective.

The key to this would seem to be ensuring these organisations really are business-led. That was, after all, what the Government has said all along. If it changes its mind about that, then the process is even more shambolic than we thought.

:: Andrew Hebden - The Voice of nebusiness - andrew.hebden@ncjmedia.co.uk