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LEA E-digest
Welcome to the latest edition of the LEA Community of Practice e-digest.
Online conference
On Tuesday 14th December at 9am there will be an online CoP conference to discuss the role of district authorities in LEAs and LEPs, and some of the challenges facing districts in the emerging economic agenda. We invite you to join us for an interactive discussion – all you need to do is log on at the start time and follow the discussions and topics in the forum thread.
District Handbook
District Councils have an important range of roles to play in the development of Local Economic Assessments. Since the decision, notified by Grant Shapps MP, that the duty to prepare an assessment will be retained, albeit the official guidance will be withdrawn, the LEA CoP has seen some sustained and interested activity as the first LEAs begin to reach fruition.
In parallel with the development of the first LEAs we now have 24 emerging LEPs sanctioned across England. A fair proportion of these are in two tier local authority areas.
There is no way that these LEAs specifically, or more generally LEPs, can move forward positively without the active engagement of Districts, across the whole gamut of economic development activity, but very specifically in relation to lead powers on housing and transport within localities.
Rocket Science and Rose Regeneration have been commissioned by Local Government Improvement and Development to prepare a supplementary handbook for Districts to support their involvement in the LEA and, looking forward, the LEP development process. This should be read in conjunction with the sector led guidance we prepared for LGID earlier in the year, which is soon to be updated.
In addition to featuring a full breakdown of the survey results setting out the experiences of Districts around the LEA development process in the summer, the new handbook contains 7 mini case studies from the following local authorities about the engagement of District Councils in the process of contributing to evidence led approaches to economic development:
- High Peak Council.
- West Oxfordshire Council.
- Mansfield Council.
- South Hams Council.
- Lincolnshire County Council.
- West Devon Council.
- Craven Council.
We are very interested in your views on the handbook. We are running a consultation via the LEA CoP on it for the next few weeks and hope that you will take the time to look at it and let us have your views. You can access it here.
Other News
LEPs Announced
The 24 first mover LEPs have been announced with the publication of the Local Growth White Paper
I am sure you will be aware which LEPs have been announced in your own area but for the record the list of the first 24 is as follows:
- Birmingham & Solihull with
E. Staffordshire, Lichfield & Tamworth
- Cheshire and Warrington
- Coast to Capital
- Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly
- Coventry & Warwickshire
- Cumbria
- Gt. Cambridge & Gt. Peterborough
- Greater Manchester
- Hertfordshire
- Kent, Greater Essex & East Sussex
- Leeds City Region
- Leicester & Leicestershire
- Lincolnshire
- Liverpool City Region
- Nottingham, Nottinghamshire,
Derby, & Derbyshire
- Oxfordshire City Region
- Sheffield City Region
- Solent
- S.E. Midlands
- Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire
- Tees Valley
- Thames Valley Berkshire
- The Marches
- West of England
The key challenge now, in an environment of limited guidance is for these organisations to get mobilised and to begin working up their own distinctive, and in some cases collective, agendas. The size and scale of the LEPs and the nature of their ambition varies quite widely. LGID have established a dedicated LEP CoP and you can access it for more “real time” information about the evolution of the LEP agenda here.
Skills for Sustainable Growth
This really rather slipped under the wire in terms of the new skills agenda – the consultation paper had a short timescale and the Government response to the consultation was equally quick. It can be accessed here.
Key proposals in terms of skills policy for the future include:
- The importance of localism in a national model
- The importance of employment and skills support at a community level - impact of minimum contract levels for community provision
- A proposed enhanced role for FE Colleges
- The abolition of EMA (Educational Maintenance Allowance) plus transport cuts
- Proposals for apprenticeship development - especially the 'Technician class'
- A recognition of the importance of Sectors
- A re-emphasis of the need for an enhanced employer voice around the skills agenda
Regional Growth Fund
The guidance and bidding forms for this can be accessed through the links set out in the Local Growth White Paper here the advice on who can bid and what might be eligible is still being formed in fine grain detail, however a number of challenges are clear:
- Effectively engaging the private sector in some areas
- State aid issues
- Eligible items/activities
These issues, plus a number of others, will need to be resolved quickly if an effective bidding round - due to close in January 2011 - can be achieved.
Tax Incremental Funding
There is no doubt that the Local Growth White Paper is about doing more economic development with less. TIF, which is big in the USA and particularly Chicago, is a powerful means of raising development cash now in lieu of business rates linked to the development in the future. You can access a really good straightforward article on TIF via Estates Review prepared by Sarah Speight here.
Economic Regeneration under Pressure
As local authorities draw in their belts, RDA begin to wind down and the HCA finds its funding somewhat hollowed out, there is at least some work in train to try and preserve the key brains driving the profession. BIS have set up a working group to seek to prevent the loss of RDA expertise. Keep your eyes peeled for more information over the coming weeks – not just to see how this process plays out but how the HCA Local Investment Plan agenda moves forward in these austere times. You can read more about this process here. | 
