Wednesday, 15 August 2018

District Councils must be 'fully represented' on Local Enterprise Partnerships

There is growing disquiet from the normally-quiescent District Councils: 

 'District councils must be properly represented on LEPs'

DEVOLUTION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

13 AUGUST, 2018 BY MARK CRANE

Those of us with the honour to represent district councils understand that better lives depend on our local economies being as strong as possible. As the District Councils Network’s slogan puts it: “Better Lives, Stronger Economies”.

Without busy, bustling high streets, strong rural economies and communities built for business, we cannot stimulate growth in our local areas, curtailing the investment we can attract to them and hampering the essential services our residents need.

A cornerstone of a strong local economy is a strong local enterprise partnership (LEP) working closely with district councils.

In our ‘Transformation in Localities Toolkit’, the District Councils Network outlined what made for the most successful collaboration between LEPs and districts. With 23 out of 38 LEPs in England featuring direct representation from districts, we are grasping this chance to both shape places and boost money flowing into local areas.

It was heartening to see the government recognise in its recent policy paper that economic areas often cross administrative boundaries. But we are concerned about proposals to remove overlaps.

It is vital to ensure that new LEP geographies – including possible mergers – fully reflect functional economic areas across England and that districts continue to influence all LEPs in their areas.

The policy paper set out a requirement that every area have a local industrial strategy. This planning at the local level can ensure that economies reflect local needs, and it’s crucial that districts, as the core housing, planning and local growth authorities, play a central role.

That means we must be fully represented. As such we were concerned about the guidance to reduce the representation of the public sector on each LEP to a third of board members. The business expertise and democratic accountability that district councils bring to the table should be considered.

District councils uniquely understand their areas. By necessity they are of the place and environment in which they are based. This also gives them the insight they need to ensure the correct enterprise and economic measures are put in place to encourage growth.

We now need the government to provide the leadership to support local economy growth.

As devolution minister Jake Berry said in a recent parliamentary debate: “The role of district councils has never been more important in delivering growth across our country, and we need them to be fully engaged with our industrial strategy to ensure that LEPs have the right governance structure, accountability and capability to take a leading role in driving economic growth, and that all local partners, including district councils, have a voice.”

That’s all true. But it’s time for the government to recognise this key role, by ensuring we are equipped with the tools to deliver this economic growth, allowing our local marketplaces to become stronger.

Mark Crane (Con), leader, Selby DC and stronger economies lead for the District Councils Network


 The East Devon Watch notes how the pressures are mounting: 

 GOVERNANCE AND TRANSPARENCY – HOW DOES OUR LOCAL ENTERPRISE PARTNERSHIP MEASURE UP?

30 JUL 2018

A long read, but if you worry about the unaccountability of our Local Enterprise Partnership (and you should) it is a “must read” – note the requirement for LEPs to be scrutinised by council scrutiny committees:

For good or ill the Government has chosen Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to play a key part in assisting in the delivery of government policies to support local economic growth.

There are 38 LEPs in England. Through the Local Growth Fund, the government has committed £12 billion to local areas between 2015 and 2021; £9.1 billion of this is through Growth Deals with LEPs. The government also sees LEPs as key to its new industrial strategy. But performance has varied as acknowledged in the government’s publication of July 2018 “Strengthened Local Enterprise Partnerships”.

Amongst other things this paper announced that all the recommendations of last year’s Mary Ney review (see below), and this year’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on Governance and Departmental oversight of the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough (GCGP) LEP, would be accepted.

Now is the moment to review these three publications which, taken together, amount to a scathing criticism of the way LEP governance arrangements, and government oversight of them, have, to date, been working:
PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE:
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmpubacc/896/896.pd

MARY NEY REVIEW
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-local-enterprise-partnership-governance-and-transparency

Other points on topics such as increasing diversity of board members are covered in the previous Watch blog:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2018/07/27/government-proposes-shake-up-of-local-enterprise-partnerships/

MEANWHILE

The House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee inquiry into Effectiveness of local authority overview and scrutiny committees was also investigating LEPs and made this recommendation in December 2017 [East Devon Alliance submitted evidence to this inquiry as well]:

“The Government to make clear how LEPs are to have democratic, and publicly visible, oversight. We recommend that upper tier councils, and combined authorities where appropriate, should be able to monitor the performance and effectiveness of LEPs through their scrutiny committees. In line with other public bodies, scrutiny committees should be able to require LEPs to provide information and attend committee meetings as required.”
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcomloc/369/369.pdf
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