Enterprise partnerships won't work without private sector, says MP

Jul 12 2010 by Tom Scotney, Birmingham Post

Adrian Bailey, the new chairman of the parliamentary committee looking after business, has said the local enterprise partnerships set to take over from regional development agencies like Advantage West Midlands will not be popular with the private sector unless businesses take a full role in them.

The West Bromwich West MP said he believed the new LEPs could work, but they would need the full cooperation of the private sector.

Mr Bailey said: “My thought is that the LEPs will have a whole new range of problems, but they will not be insurmountable.

“But even where businesses had problems with AWM they would have preferred to deal with the people at AWM rather than people in local or national government.”

The new coalition Government is forging ahead with plans to replace RDAs with the new local enterprise partnerships, formed by councils.

Mr Bailey was speaking at an event arranged by the Centre for Cities to look at the future of business support now regional business support networks have been pulled down with the abolition of AWM.

He was joined by other speakers including Centre for Cities chief executive Dermot Finch, Institute of Chartered Accountants chief executive Micahel Izza, and Birmingham chamber head Jerry Blackett.

Jerry Blackett called on all the different parts of the West Midlands metropolitan area to pull together in setting up an LEP that covered the full city region area.