Exclusive: Anger at leps critics amid uncertainty over their future role

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The top representative of England’s 38 Local Economic Partnerships (leps) told LGC he was “quite furious” at the criticisms of the leps made by Whitehall insiders to a national newspaper, and “frustrated” that the leps were still left in the dark about their future role nine months after the start of an exam.

The secretary of communities recently indicated that like his predecessor Robert Jenrick, he would prefer to limit the powers of lepers. Michael Gove told the County Councils Network conference last month: “My preference is that powers, including economic development powers, are best exercised alongside other powers that are in the hands of democratically elected leaders and responsible.

“This is only a preference, but we are reviewing the position at the moment.”

LGC understands that certain areas covered by county agreements should be offered a more important role in the direction of their local economies and thus assume the role of leps in these areas, as is already the case in the authorities. municipal combined. However, in areas without county or mayor agreements, it is believed that leps will still have a role to play in shaping economic development.

But according to the Financial Times yesterday, Mr. Gove may have plans to get rid of the leps altogether. Three government officials told the newspaper that “serious conversations” had taken place within the Department of Leveling, Housing and Communities over the removal of the leps. One official described them as “weak, inefficient, and uplifting with poor geography,” with another commenting, “Most of them are a waste of space. “

The comments angered Leps Network chairman Mark Bretton, who stressed that the government’s current review on leps is “not about our performance” but “changing our role”, and that this is clearly stated in his mandate.

“I’m very disappointed that these comments were reported – I’m quite furious. The review is about government policy, not our performance,” he told LGC. “Hearing ‘a complete waste of space.’ is at odds with all the recorded assessments that are compared to Whitehall standards and what the Secretary of State has said in public about leps. “

The review by the Cities and Local Growth Unit, which reports jointly to the Ministry of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the DLUHC, began in March after the role of leps in the allocation funding pots has been cut, with the leveling fund of £ 4bn and £ 220m. pilot for the UK’s Shared Prosperity Fund, both administered by the councils.

But the review was hampered by delays. The government had initially committed to doing this before the summer recess, and then it was proposed to be part of the spending review and finally to be part of the white paper on the leveling to the top again. This had been promised before the end of the year but has now been postponed to January, with DLUHC reportedly being constrained by capacity issues.

Mr Bretton said: “The review will not last far a year and we have been ready for months. I have a pretty serious problem with that because we have staff attrition issues as a result, because people are worried about uncertainty.

“Gove must now have a fairly reasonable view of what he wants us to do. We certainly can’t be the upgrade whitepaper blocker. The hours of work that we have put into this over the past few months could have been put to much better use to improve our economy – it’s so frustrating. “

Mr Bretton said the leps are “done and ready” for all government plans regarding the future role of leps.

“We are not waiting for stone tablets, just a direction of movement so that we can start and begin the next phase of what we want to deliver.

“We have made some really important contributions to the economy, especially after the pandemic and we look forward to continuing with that. You will get the evolution of leps and different political cultures. You have this in the new municipal authorities. The leps are caught in the middle of some of this political stuff – we just want to get the job done. “

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