New partnerships ‘lack clout to end North-South divide’

Business and council-led Local Enterprise Partnerships – set up by the coalition after the “rushed abolition” of Yorkshire Forward and other regional development agencies – lack the clout and resources to address the growing divide according to the Smith Institute think tank.

Without extra support from the Government, the partnerships – including the four set up across Yorkshire and the Humber – risk “falling into irrelevance”, according to the report which includes contributions from a series of experts.

Smith Institute director Paul Hackett said: “This new Smith Institute report shows that the Government’s strategy to rebalance the economy is not working.

“The consensus view among the experts is that the LEPs will not be able to match the RDAs and lack the resources and clout to address the growing economic regional divide”.

The Government has made tackling the North-South divide a priority, pledging £2.4bn through a Regional Growth Fund and introducing incentives such as National Insurance contribution holidays for new firms in an effort to aid the creation of thousands of private sector jobs in parts of the country such as Yorkshire which are facing heavy public sector jobs losses.

But the Yorkshire Post’s Give us a Fair Deal campaign has highlighted how the pledge to rebalance the economy risks failing as employment levels in the North lag behind those in London and the South East and this region is hampered by a poor deal in some areas of public spending, such as transport where money has repeatedly been ploughed into infrastructure in the capital at the expense of Yorkshire.

A spokesperson for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills said: “The Government is totally committed to rebalancing the economy and giving power back to local people, who really understand what is needed to drive growth in their area.

“Local enterprise partnerships now cover all businesses in England. They are breathing new life into local economies by driving forward innovative projects that are stimulating business growth and creating jobs.”