Local Economic Assessments & the new Government’s Growth AgendaColin Lovegrove CLG

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“Control Shift - Returning Power to Local Communities” author Eric Pickles 2009

Three Priorities:

LocalismLocalismLocalism

“Alongside the economic crisis we face the crisis of our broken society and a crisis of confidence in our political

system. A common thread runs through these failures: an imbalance of responsibility and power.”

Foreword by David Cameron and Nick Clegg, The Coalition: Our Programme for Government May 2010

“We share a conviction that the days of big government are over; that centralisation and top-down control have proved a failure. We believe

that the time has come to disperse power more widely in Britain today. […]Our government will be a

much smarter one, shunning the bureaucratic levers of the past […].”.”

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Localism

•Pushing power away from Whitehall to local areas

•Freeing up local government

•Strengthening local government accountability

•People to take control and take responsibility in their street, their town

New Localism Bill in the autumn

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Decentralisation…

The Coalition’s programme for government sets out plans to decentralise to all levels:

Individuals

Local communities /

neighbourhoods / civic society

Front line professionals

(such as police officers, nurses and teachers)

Local institutions (such as

schools and hospitals)

Local government

...distribute power and opportunity to people...

...extend the roll-out of personal budgets in social care...

...the state should help parents, community groups and others come together to set up new schools...

...communities coming together to make lives better...

...create new trusts that will make it simpler for communities to provide homes for local people...

...give neighbourhoods the ability to determine the shape of the places in which their inhabitants live....

...give heads and teachers the powers they need to ensure discipline...

...strengthen the power of GPs...

…enable GPs to commission care on behalf of patients…

…reduce red tape for police officers…

…introduce mayors with additional powers…

…create directly elected police ‘commissioners’……directly electedindividuals on the boards of their localprimary care trust…...give councils a general power of competence....

...phase out the ring-fencing of grants...

...return decision-making powers to local councils...

...promote a radical devolution of power and greater financial autonomy...

...all schools have greater freedom over the curriculum...

...stop the centrally dictated closure of A&E and maternity wards....

… enable employees to set up co-ops and mutuals to take over and run public services …

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Sharing growth across the country

The Government wants:

•a fairer and more balanced economy where new businesses and economic opportunities are more evenly shared between regions

•to rebalance the economy towards the private sector

•Strong private sector recovery in areas that are currently overly dependent on the public sector.

The solution needs to be local

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Economic development – what is being scrapped?

•Regional Spatial Strategies

•Regional Development Agencies

•Comprehensive Area Assessment

•Reviewing future of LAAs

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The New Economic Development Landscape

- Local enterprise partnerships

- Regional Growth Fund

- New local authority incentives for growth

White Paper on sub-national growth in the summer….

New powers and incentives for localities to focus on their own local economic priorities, rather than national targets

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Local Enterprise Partnerships

• Key vehicle for delivering economic growth and rebalancing the economy;

• Locally owned and suit their locality;• Jointly run by local authorities and business;• To match natural economic geography• To include groups of upper tier local authorities

Government to support the creation of Local Enterprise Partnerships – joint local authority-business bodies brought forward to promote local economic

development – to replace RDAs.

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Local enterprise partnerships - Invitation for proposals

• CLG & BIS yesterday wrote to local authorities and businesses to come forward with proposals for LEPs

•Focus on tackling issues such as planning and housing, local transport and infrastructure priorities, employment and enterprise & low carbon economy

•Bottom up process, right of initiative is local

•Possible legislation for LEPs if required through Localism Bill

•Outline proposals from 6 September

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Regional Growth Fund

•Help rebalance local economies that are heavily dependent on the public sector

•Fund to support proposals from private and public-private bodies that create sustainable increases in business employment and growth

•Further details on fund and its relationship with LEPs to be set out in summer White Paper on sub-national growth

•Expectation is that LEPs will be able to co-ordinate local bids for funding

Budget Statement – To help areas affected by reductions in public spending make the transition to private sector growth and prosperity, the Government will create a Regional Growth Fund in 2010/11 and 2012/13.

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What does this all mean for local economic assessments?

•Local economic development to continue to be a priority for local authorities and their partners

•Increasing need for a robust local economic evidence base to underpin strategies

•Local economic assessments should increasingly reflect local economic priorities

•Economic assessments expected to inform discussions around local enterprise partnerships and support their work

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Local economic assessments – Future Priorities

•Local authorities should continue to work with neighbouring local authorities in developing assessments

•Important that local authorities speak in the same currency so that they can compare areas

•Need for local consensus over natural economic geography

•Assessments need to increasingly view the world through the eyes of businesses

•Emphasis should be on private sector growth – how well placed is your area? Is your area too reliant on public sector?

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Finally …. key challenges for local authorities

•View assessment within the context of the new Government’s emerging agenda

•It is your assessment – not for central Government

•Make an honest assessment of your economy’s strengths and weaknesses and links with wider economy

•Think about the future world – low carbon economy, future growth sectors and need for private rather than public sector led growth

•Be clear about how you use assessments and gain most benefit from them