29/04/13

LEP Network Annual Conference 2013 summary

 

On 18th April hundreds of LEP enthusiasts arrived at One Great George Street for a day of information gathering, sharing and networking.  It was time for the Annual LEP Network Conference 2013.

The event, sponsored by Barclays, played host to a line up of high profile speakers from across the business and political spectrum.  Speakers included: David Frost, LEP Network Chair; Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin MP, Secretary of State for Transport; Rt Hon Vince Cable MP, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills; Mark Prisk MP, Minister of State for Housing and Local Government; Rt Hon Lord Heseltine CH, Former Deputy Prime Minister; senior civil servants and LEP Chairs.

The event was incredibly well attended and we hope enjoyed by all.  For those of you that couldn't make it here is a summary of the days highlight:

David Frost

  • There will be significant pressure on LEPs to deliver, and the eyes of government are now firmly focused on their performance
  • LEPs will have to prove legitimacy through transparency and publicity
  • A critical role for LEPs is to ensure business knows who you are and what you have achieved

Mark Prisk MP

  • LEPs can and are making a difference but we have more work to do, he also thanked LEP Board members for volunteering to sit on their local LEP Board
  • Economic Growth and Housing must go hand in hand
  • City Deals have to add real value
  • My role is not to tell you what to do but do need you to lead. Mechanisms include City Deals, EU funds, growing places fund

Patrick McLoughlin MP

  • LEPs are in the best position to target investment most effectively
  • We will accelerate decentralisation

The full Speech can be located here: http://lepnetwork.co.uk/leps-and-transport-speech-by-secretary-of-state-for-transport-patrick-mcloughlin.html

Ashok Vaswani

  • Barclays have committed to 2000 apprentices and have so far hired 650 
  • Barclays have committed to creating 10000 jobs and would be interested in sharing risk on this via the Growing Places Fund
  • We need to help small businesses with short and long term debt

Vince Cable MP

  • big issue how Heseltine is implemented. No blank cheque for LEPs. City Deal concept favoured by Govt.
  • points to City Deals as example of the type of multi-year growth plans LEPs should progress
  • Key components for LEPs are City Deal, Growing Places Fund, Enterprise Zones and Regional Growth Fund
  • Significant commitment to devolve funding locally following Heseltine Review. City Deal model has provided blueprint
  • LEPs are idea for aggregating provision of skills training for SMEs locally

LEP Chairs

  • Some LEPs will offer rate relief if the companies commit to spend the saved expense on skills, jobs, growth and investment
  • Think BIG Picture
  • Skills are a priority for all LEPs
  • It's about policy at level of place, not at level of institution
  • A skills enterprise board has been established in one LEP area to help move towards payments by results not 'bums on seats'

Lord Heseltine

  • You must join up funding. Do more with less.  Bending spending
  • Have you got the right leader?
  • Experiment and innovate
  • on single pot, battle going on across Whitehall, lobby your MPs/Ministers/use media. Get support of local people. Do not give in
  • believes in a local competitive model built on back of public expenditure. Competition drives up quality & value

The full speech can be found here: http://lepnetwork.co.uk/the-rt-hon-lord-heseltine-ch-speech-for-lep-network-annual-conference.html

Caroline Dinenage MP

  • Introduced the work of the APPG Local Growth http://appglocalgrowth.org/

Full Speech can be found here: http://lepnetwork.co.uk/caroline-dinenages-speech-from-the-lep-network-annual-conference.html

Of course this represents just a snapshot of the day.  Many thanks to all guest speakers and attendees.

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