To describe the way the Government has gone about launching Local Enterprise Partnerships as a shambles would be putting it mildly. An unmitigated and embarrassing disaster would be a better choice of words.
Business Secretary Vince Cable famously described LEPs as a Maoist venture, hinting that there would eventually be some substance to the rapidly unfolding chaos, but Dr Cable’s optimism is yet to be rewarded.
One can only feel sorry for Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and local council leaders who have been engaged in months of hard work trying to make sense of the LEP’s reason for being, when it is becoming increasingly clear that the Government itself has until now had no firm grasp of what Local Enterprise Partnerships are supposed to do or the role they will have in securing funding for regeneration schemes.
Having decided, for ideological reasons, to get rid of the regional development agencies, which were castigated as wasteful over-bureaucratic bodies, the Conservative Party entered the 2010 General Election with no real understanding of what, if anything, would replace the RDAs.
Since then the nature of Coalition politics, plus a requirement to slash public spending, has clearly made it more difficult to give the LEPs some financial clout, but even so the dithering and confusion is not painting the Government in a good light.
Much time has been wasted, with conflicting signals about the status of LEPs, the powers the organisations are to have and even whether they would be able directly to submit applications for funding which apparently they cannot - its role is to support and endorse.
What appears to have emerged finally through the mists of Whitehall is a decision that, in the first instance, bids to the Regional Growth Fund must be framed around “quick win” projects to create jobs.
This is all very well, and it is obvious in the current economic climate why Ministers should want new jobs to come rapidly on stream, but the decision leaves a giant question mark over the responsibility LEPs are to have for the longer-term strategic regeneration schemes upon which sustainable economic recovery will depend.
For the Birmingham-Solihull LEP, events of the past few days are bound to cast doubt over the viability of two major infrastructure projects – the extension of Birmingham Airport’s runway and completion of the Longbridge regeneration scheme - and possibly the point of its own existence. Both are strategic projects, creating jobs and economic wealth.
In the case of the airport, the runway extension is generally accepted to be a vital component in helping to rescue the West Midlands economy from the doldrums.
Business leaders, whose input and leadership according to the Government is required to make LEPs work, have been amazingly diplomatic about the mess unfolding around their heads.
Chamber of Commerce chief executive Jerry Blackett admits publicly to being disappointed, but privately he must be furious. When the process for forming LEPs began at the end of last summer, Mr Blackett and many of his business colleagues were optimistic about the role they would be expected to play in spearheading economic growth.
The very great fear now is that the business community will be tempted to say enough is enough and turn its back on partnership working. Hope will be replaced by cynicism, unless even at this late stage the Government can breathe new life into the LEP agenda
