Written evidence from the West of England
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The business community and the local authorities
in the West of England welcome the opportunity to establish a
Local Enterprise Partnership, building on our existing strong
and successful private/public sector partnership working. The
aim of the Local Enterprise Partnership will be to create the
optimum conditions for businesses to flourish in order to deliver
sustainable economic growth, to help drive the national economic
recovery.
The West of England is one of the UK's economic
power houses—with a strong industrial base that is technologically
advanced. Our continued growth will provide national economic
benefits.
We believe that through an enhanced partnership
between business and the public sector, we can unlock substantial
private sector investment in the West of England over the next
five years that will create jobs and new homes and contribute
to investment in infrastructure and local services, supporting
above average economic growth and prosperity.
In order to do this, there are some key functions
the Local Enterprise Partnership will need to commission, manage
and/or deliver. These are:
— Providing business support to key growth
sectors based within the West of England, namely creative and
media, aerospace and defence, advanced engineering including micro-electronics
and silicon design, environmental technologies/marine renewables
and tourism. Supporting these key growth sectors will ensure they
remain competitive in the global market and will create local
private sector jobs to rebalance the economy.
— Innovation and technology transfer to
encourage and facilitate high-tech business start-up and growth.
— Provision of critical infrastructure
and opening up of key employment sites.
— Co-ordination of skills provision to
meet business need.
We would ask the Select Committee to recommend
to government that these functions are included within the potential
functions of Local Enterprise Partnerships.
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 The West of England (the area covered
by the four unitary authority areas of Bristol, Bath & North
East Somerset, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset) is the
most economically competitive major city area outside London.
There is a collective view of both the private and public sectors
that this is a natural economic area which has significant potential
for further growth. The West of England is already one of the
fastest growing economies outside of London and is fully committed
to building on this success and fulfilling the Government's aims
of rebalancing the economy, encouraging private sector job growth
and creating the conditions for long-term sustainable, green economic
growth.
1.2 The West of England very much welcomes
the opportunity to submit an outline proposal to establish a Local
Enterprise Partnership, which will build upon the well-established
partnership already operating within the West of England. The
West of England is already fostering growth in knowledge-intensive
and green industries that will be central to the future success
of the national economy. Our economy is diverse and is strengthened
by the high growth sectors that are crucial for an economic recovery
through sustainable growth at a local and national level, namely:
— advanced engineering, including micro-electronics
and silicon design; and
— environmental technologies/marine renewables.
1.3 These complement a thriving cultural
and visitor economy, which are also extremely important for our
area.
1.4 The area's economy will be significantly
affected by the reduction in public sector expenditure and public
sector job losses. However, the West of England is well placed
to deal with this challenge, as it has a proven history of adapting
to the ever-changing global economy and, as a result, has the
potential for more rapid economic growth than other areas of the
UK.
1.5 The focus of our proposal to establish
a Local Enterprise Partnership will be to assist the national
economic recovery by further strengthening our economy, by overcoming
our constraints to further growth and creating the optimum conditions
for businesses to flourish. This will lay the foundations for
our vision of a long-term sustainable prosperous and productive
economy.
1.6 We believe that through a strong partnership
between the private and public sectors we can create the conditions
that give the private sector the confidence to invest in growth
and job creation; delivering new employment space and new homes
and investing in infrastructure and local services. Our aim is
to unlock at least £1 Billion of private sector investment
over the next five years.
2. ROLE
2.1 The West of England already has a well-established
partnership between business the higher education (HE) and further
education (FE) sectors and the four unitary authorities. This
partnership provides effective leadership and has a proven track
record of delivery. By developing a Local Enterprise Partnership,
the West of England is embracing the opportunity to build upon
our successful partnership work to date. Our priorities going
forward, will be based on the following key objectives:
(a) To rebalance the local economy towards private
enterprise. Many public sector jobs in our local economy are under
threat and stimulation of the private sector will help to redress
the impact on the West of England economy.
(b) To support the key business sectors based
in the West of England, that will be fundamental not only to the
West of England's international competitiveness, but also to the
competitiveness of the UK economy.
(c) To focus on the skills that employers will
need to prosper in the future (ensuring business has a central
role to play in identifying those skills needs).
(d) To help nurture an innovation and enterprise
culture by working with businesses, higher education/further education
and the public sector, in order to ensure that the intellectual
property and research capability within our educational institutions
is more easily accessible to local businesses so as to harness
the creative spirit that exists within the West of England.
(e) To create the right conditions for businesses
to thrive by delivering the necessary infrastructure and unlocking
sites for employment uses.
(f) To further strengthen the existing strong
and effective partnership between businesses and the unitary authorities.
(g) To work in partnership with Government to
remove barriers to enterprise and growth.
2.2 In the letter from The RT Hon Dr Vince
Cable MP and The RT Hon Eric Pickles MP on 29 June, there was
a suggestion that certain Regional Development Agency (RDA) functions
are best led nationally. We have been considering all functions
that are required to strengthen the West of England economy and
strongly believe that many of these functions require strong local
capacity and capability rather than simply being discharged at
a national level. These are detailed under the sub-headings below.
2.3 Supporting specific sectors
2.3.1 The West of
England Local Enterprise Partnership should provide sector support
to those industries which play an important role in the local
economy. The West of England has a long tradition of innovation
and creativity and is a major centre for many sectors, namely:
creative and media, aerospace and defence, advanced engineering
including micro-electronics and silicon design, environmental
technologies/marine renewables and tourism. As well as being of
national significance, these industries need to be supported locally
because of their interconnectedness with the local economy. There
are specific links with local innovation and technology transfer
activities, local skills providers and local planning, site and
infrastructure provision. This is a collective endeavour between
our businesses, our local authorities, our universities, our colleges
and schools, our business support agencies and our trade bodies.
It takes advantage of assets such as our developing science park,
the national composite centre and existing incubation and innovation
centres.
2.3.2 Over and above the local importance, many
of the sectors located in the West of England are also of national
importance. There is a need to ensure that these sectors remain
competitive in the global market. Our Local Enterprise Partnership
proposition will emphasise the need to sustain and improve on
sector support currently provided by the Regional Development
Agency. Due to the high concentration of these sectors within
the West of England, the Local Enterprise Partnership is well
placed to act as a centre of excellence for these sectors on a
national basis and will look to transfer RDA expertise for business
support for key sectors to provide this.
2.3.3 The West of England is looking to establish
a network between Local Enterprise Partnerships with similar sector
concentrations to maximise the benefit of these sectors to the
UK as a whole, reducing duplication of effort and ensuring that
skills and expertise are available where they are needed. Where
there are national key sector inward investment opportunities,
the Local Enterprise Partnership would expect to work with UK
Trade and Investment on this.
2.3.4 We will build on our existing networks
such as the Core Cities Group, Silicon SW and the Science Cities
Networks to create a shared, supportive, efficient and effective
approach with other Local Enterprise Partnerships.
2.4 Innovation and technology transfer
2.4.1 The West of
England is already heavily engaged in innovation and technology
transfer. Our longstanding association with aerospace and defence,
and our successes in life sciences and biotechnology, means we
already have the components to drive the knowledge economy; namely
research, institutions (including four universities), networks,
skills and business infrastructure. Bristol, in the West of England,
has been designated as a Science City, whilst Bath is home to
Silicon SW the focus for the largest silicon cluster outside the
South East. A new science park and national composite centre are
in development in the area. These initiatives are dependent on
the strong working relationships we have forged between businesses,
our higher education institutions and the unitary authorities.
We would expect future Government policy to recognise the role
the Local Enterprise Partnership could play in delivering relevant
aspects of innovation and technology transfer, either as a local
delivery agency or in partnership with national delivery agencies.
As such, the West of England would expect to have a role as an
engine of innovation and business growth, and would look at opportunities
to secure investment and support from government and other sources,
for new markets and enterprise.
2.5 Infrastructure, regeneration and
employment sites
2.5.1 Business and
the unitary authorities in the West of England are clear that
infrastructure is critical to creating the optimum conditions
for growth. It is vital to ensure that we can attract new business
to the area, assist indigenous businesses to remain in the area
and provide for business growth. Infrastructure is especially
important to delivering our shared views and ambitions for strategic
employment and regeneration sites. This should include schools,
green spaces, health care, broadband connectivity, as well as
the transport infrastructure that serves both the area and enhances
connectivity to the rest of the UK. We already have detailed Memoranda
of Understanding with the Highways Agency and with the rail industry
and we will develop this collaborative approach to help unlock
transport infrastructure and services provision. The partners
in the West of England have also agreed an Infrastructure and
Investment Delivery Plan. This identifies the strategic locations
across the West of England which can drive future economic growth
and the investment requirements for unlocking their potential.
2.5.2 To complement investment in infrastructure
we need continued support to open up difficult brownfield and
allocated sites for regeneration and employment. These sites have
the potential to accommodate growth whilst allowing us to protect
and improve green belt and other valued green space and reduce
urban sprawl into neighbouring rural areas. A significant amount
of public and private investment in the area over the last two
decades has focused on brownfield development. We are now getting
to the stage where it is the most difficult to develop sites,
with exceptional up-front costs, that remain. We need a focused
discussion with Government on more flexible ways that local partners
can provide pump-priming funding, clawing this funding back over
time as development takes place. This could include mechanisms
such as allowing borrowing against future homes and business growth
incentives and Tax Increment Funding.
2.5.3 To be able to deliver the necessary infrastructure
and sites to create the optimum condition for growth in the West
of England, the Local Enterprise Partnership requires greater
flexibility. To achieve this, the government should support local
planning decisions which support development and growth and which
unlock permissions.
2.5.4 Provision should be made for devolved
funding for significant local infrastructure projects and the
Local Enterprise Partnership should have access to the Regional
Growth Fund.
2.5.5 Where infrastructure has a direct or indirect
impact on the West of England's economy, the Local Enterprise
Partnership should have influence over the strategies, plans and
operational decisions of the relevant national agencies and infrastructure
providers.
2.6 Skills
2.6.1 In order to
deliver growth successfully within the West of England and, in
particular, growth in our key sectors, the Local Enterprise Partnership
will need to ensure that the workforce has the skills required
by those sectors. Key will be ensuring that the needs of local
businesses are understood and that the skills provision is "demand
led". The Local Enterprise Partnership will need to be able
to co-ordinate skills to help drive up participation and attainment
and enhance business productivity and competitiveness. HE and
FE institutions are vital partners in this work and will be members
of the Board.
2.6.2 In order to be able to fulfil this important
function it is essential that Local Enterprise Partnerships are
provided with sufficient leverage to bring skills providers to
the table and be able to influence their plans. This needs to
be reflected in how HE and FE planning and funding regimes are
organised so that they pay heed to business demand as focused
through the Local Enterprise Partnership.
3. RESOURCES,
FUNDING AND
ASSETS
3.1 In terms of resourcing the Local Enterprise
Partnership, the West of England Partnership has a supporting
staff structure which could help support the day to day operations
of the Local Enterprise Partnership.
3.2 The West of England Local Enterprise
Partnership is proposing to lead national sector support for a
number of high growth sectors which are particularly concentrated
in this area. As this function would be delivered on behalf of
the nation as a whole, it is unrealistic to expect that local
partners can fully fund this. We would therefore be seeking resource
from central government for these specific activities.
3.3 In this context, and from our discussions
with our business community we know that they would value the
transfer some of the resource capacity and relevant skills that
already exist within the RDA, such as support for specific high
growth sectors and project development expertise at the interface
between public and private sector investment. We would want to
have a discussion with Government on the transfer of some of this
capacity to the new Local Enterprise Partnership, these core costs
being covered through grant.
3.4 The West of England Local Enterprise
Partnership would like to review assets held by government agencies,
including RDA assets (both those directly owned and those where
the RDA has an interest secured through a funding agreement or
equivalent arrangement) and assist the transfer of those assets
which deliver positive economic outcomes, and which do not present
liabilities, to the unitary authorities.
3.5 We would like to play a stronger role
in the management of ERDF, both locally and, potentially, in a
sub-national role. There are a number of existing commissioned
ERDF projects which either focus on parts of the West of England
or which are being delivered by partners based in the West of
England (eg University of the West of England) and we believe
that there is a strong efficiency case for concentrating ERDF
management capacity in a number of locations rather than spreading
the jam too thinly. This will protect Government by assuring strong
programme and project management.
3.6 The Local Enterprise Partnership would
expect to have access to the Regional Growth Fund and act as strategic
and operational lead, playing an important role in the development,
administration and delivery of Regional Growth Fund bids in this
area. The Partnership expects the Fund to support projects in
the West of England that will act as a catalyst for business growth,
directly creating the conditions for business and sector growth
and creating jobs.
3.7 We would expect Government to enter
into a meaningful dialogue with Local Enterprise Partnerships
on flexibilities that could increase the effectiveness of public
funding, helping to unlock private sector investment and maintain
State Aid compliance.
4. CONCLUSION
4.1 The West of England has a proven history
of strong public/private sector partnership working. There is
a firm belief in the West of England that this can be strengthened
by establishing a Local Enterprise Partnership which is committed
to achieving economic recovery through sustainable growth, which
will lay the foundations for a long-term sustained prosperous
and productive West of England economy which can contribute to
a strong national economy. The West of England economy is diverse
in nature and has proved to be adaptable to the changing global
economy. However, the Local Enterprise Partnership will provide
the opportunity for the West of England to create the optimum
conditions for businesses to thrive, facilitating growth on a
local and national scale.
5. RECOMMENDATION
FOR THE
COMMITTEE TO
CONSIDER
5.1 The West of England recommends that
the Select Committee supports Local Enterprise Partnerships in
the following:
— Sector support—For appropriate
Local Enterprise Partnerships to provide a national lead on providing
sector support and ensures specific resources are made available
for this.
— Innovation—Where innovation and
technology transfer is a significant element of the economy, for
Local Enterprise Partnerships to have a role in innovation and
technology transfer as the local delivery agency or in partnership
with national delivery agencies such as the Technology Strategy
Board.
— Skills—For Local Enterprise Partnerships
to co-ordinate skills provision relating to business need and
the needs of the local economy.
— Strategic planning, infrastructure, regeneration
and employment sites—for Local Enterprise Partnerships to
play a catalytic role in creating the conditions for economic
growth.
— Regional Growth Fund—For the Local
Enterprise Partnership to have access to the Regional Growth Fund
and act as strategic and operational lead, playing an important
role in the development, administration and delivery of Regional
Growth Fund bids in this area.
5.2 We would also recommend that the Select
Committee to recognise that re-balancing the West of England economy
in terms of skills, regeneration and jobs, is vital to sustaining
the success of not only the West of England economy but also of
critical importance to the UK.
13 August 2010
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