No, not an FE Week headline but somewhat surprisingly the title of a press release issued by the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government subtitled ‘New proposals for LEPs to supercharge economic growth and drive forward investment in local businesses across the country’. The publication of the ‘Strengthened Local Enterprise Partnerships’ review sees government following up on its promise in the Industrial Strategy white paper to bring forward reforms to the leadership, governance and accountability of the 38 LEPs charged with kick-starting economic growth and creating jobs in their regions. The report is both supportive of LEPs in playing their part in meeting the Government’s ambition but also to some extent critical of aspects of their work so far. The announcement also brings up to £20 million of additional funding for LEPs between 2018 to 2019 and 2019 to 2020.
