Councils will join forces to develop the economy
Running of Local Enterprise Partnership to be taken on by city and county authorities
STAFFORDSHIRE and Stoke-ontrent councils are set to join forces to take on economic development work previously carried out by the area’s Local Enterprise Partnership.
Stoke-on-trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (SSLEP) is due to close, 13 years after it was formed to support businesses.
Its reserves are to be transferred to Staffordshire County Council, with funding for the Growth Hub, Careers Hub and Local Visitor Economy Partnership ring-fenced as key economic programmes for the area.
The authority is set to form a joint committee with Stoke-on-trent City Council, with both taking on the responsibilities of SSLEP.
County council leader Alan White told the latest overview and scrutiny committee meeting: “For the last decade the LEP has acted as an important organisational means of bringing together businesses and
local leaders to drive economic growth. It has also been responsible for the management and delivery of several major funding streams from government.
“We received government guidance in early 2022 that LEPS’ responsibilities would be transferred to upper-tier local authorities. Subsequently the Chancellor stated he was minded to end national funding for LEPS from April 1 this year.
“Based on the methodology we’ve already used working with Stokeon-trent City Council across shared services of archives and coroners, the methodology set out is what is going to be used.”
Councillor Jeremy Pert said: “I think this in principle is a good thing because it moves one of the layers of decision-making locally. I think the other benefit is it ensures a joined-up strategy.
“However, the bit that concerns me is the legacy projects, because it’s fine reporting the returns to government for the legacy programmes, but there are some really key important outcomes that should help Staffordshire to maintain its growth.
“I would hope we were doing more than just reporting the returns for government and what we were going to do was to ensure that the budgeted business cases were achieved in all cases.
“Sometimes, when it’s not our money, there is less emphasis in trying to make sure we maximise the return.”
Councillor White responded: “The projects that have been brought forward over the past 14 years have seen Staffordshire, which was part of the worst-performing regions in England, go from a laggard to somewhere where we should all rightly be proud with the projects that have been put in place. To allow those projects to passively chug along postlep would be the wrong thing to do.
“What we should be doing is ensuring the joint endeavour of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-trent is one that continues to enhance the growth capabilities of this area.
“It was clear that the Secretary of State, in his direction to bring management of these funds into upper-tier local authorities, wanted to make sure that there was democratic oversight of the funding.
“I think that’s the right thing, to make sure it chimes with the priorities of those people that are elected to represent people, rather than those people who might be sitting round the table motivated by the interests of their business and not necessarily the wider interests of the people of Staffordshire.”