The LEP Network

Solent

Background

The Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (Solent LEP) is led by the business community and supported by four university partners, the further education sector, three unitary authorities, eight district councils, one county council and the voluntary and community sector, all of whom are actively working together to secure a more prosperous and sustainable future for the Solent area.

Its vision is to create an environment that will better facilitate economic growth and private sector investment in the Solent area, allow businesses to grow, become more profitable, greener and enable new businesses to form and prosper.

Solent LEP plans to take forward eight key areas of work in its first 18 months, building on what has already been achieved in the area:

• Develop a growth hub and strategic based clusters which can deliver export-led growth in high value employment, capitalising on the sectoral strengths of the area and as a leading location and growth hub for advanced manufacturing and engineering and transport and logistics
• Strengthen the visitor economy reflecting the increasing importance of the sector to the Solent economy, capitalising on its reputation as an international gateway for business visitors and tourists as well as its natural assets, accommodation, heritage and retail experience
• Invest in skills to enable higher levels of employment and deliver a more balanced and sustainable pattern of growth to ensure that local residents are equipped to take up the jobs that are created
• Realise the potential of its cities and supporting areas that are economically vulnerable in order to substantially reduce the high levels of welfare dependency and secure an additional 10,000 job opportunities for those not in work
• Focus on infrastructure priorities including key land assets, transport and housing, flood risk mitigation and reliable high speed broadband
• Support enterprise, new business starts and business survival through the further development of the Solent Synergy model, recognising that restrictions on public funding will limit the level of direct Government assistance available for enterprise development and business support
• Establish a single inward investment and place marketing function building on the streamlining of services that has already taken place
• Continue to implement innovation in delivery and funding in order to secure a financially sustainable future and commit to a continued programme of public sector rationalisation and co-location of services across the Local Authorities and with key partners such as Job Centre plus and the Environment Agency.

Geography

The Solent area is anchored around the Isle of Wight, the two cities of Portsmouth and Southampton and the M27 corridor and Solent waterway.

Board and Governance

Chair: Doug Morrison

Enterprise Zone(s)

Land at Daedalus, a former MoD site based at Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire, is a designated Enterprise Zone. See more information here.

News

http://www.solentlep.org.uk/growing_places

Key contact

Anne-Marie Mountifield

Phone: 07540 238154

Email: [email protected]

LEP Twitter: @SolentLEP

http://www.solentlep.org.uk/