Voluntary organisations welcome to join Local Enterprise Partnerships

The Government has announced that voluntary and community organisations are welcome to get involved in the development of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), after originally excluding the third sector when it asked local authority leaders for LEP proposals.

The National Association of Voluntary and Charity Action (NAVCA) is claiming the announcement as a victory after it wrote to Communities Minister Greg Clark to express its disappointment that the sector was excluded.

The letter asked for the Government to recognise the "considerable economic impact of the sector" and reverse the decision to omit third sector organisations from the development of LEPs. Kevin Curley, chief executive of NAVCA, said: "This is a victory for the voluntary and community sector."

Meanwhile, manufacturers are warning the Government to limit the number of LEPs created in England or risk diluting their positive impact. Trade association EEF claims that up to 60 partnerships are being considered ahead of the 6 September deadline, which it believes will results in "lots of little bodies with tiny amounts of funding".

At the end of June, Ministers Vince Cable and Eric Pickles wrote to local authorities and business leaders, asking them to submit proposals on how best to form LEPs by 6 September. LEPs will take over some of the responsibilities of England's eight Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), excluding London, which will be axed by March 2012.

For more on this story from NAVCA click here.

To read more on the EEF's reaction to LEPs click here.

The Local Government Chronicle keeps a regularly updated list of LEP proposals here.

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