The government has been urged to make sure new Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) focus efforts on providing targeted training and business support.
Yesterday, the coalition government announced that it had received 56 proposals from across the country for the new LEPs which are being introduced following the scrapping of Regional Development Agencies and local Business Link services.
Communities secretary Eric Pickles hailed the new LEPs as “the beginning of a new radical way of delivering prosperity and rebalancing the economy”.
“LEPs are a way of tying council and business interests together, and creating the conditions for business to thrive and prosper,” he added.
Business secretary Vince Cable said the government had met with leading business groups who had all contributed their thoughts on how the LEPs should work and that it was clear they needed to be “practical bodies for promoting enterprise, not talking shops”.
However, the Forum of Private Business has expressed concern over the lack of clarity on how the LEPs will operate and be funded.
The lobby group said businesses wanted named advisors who could address training needs. It also called for a guarantee of a fair and open marketplace which allowed companies to choose their own forms of support.
Phil Orford, chief executive of the FPB, said there was a danger of returning to the “parochial approach to business support of the 1980s and 90s”.
“Close-knit networking is not enough and prescribed, vaguely-defined business support is not practical or cost-effective,” he added.
“Impartial guidance on the real support that is available would be one such service. Helping businesses to access the right training would be another, particularly as firms seek to recruit and grow.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2010