LEP hands over to 'prosperity partnership board' as council seeks businesses to guide Hants' growth

Hampshire County Council is calling for nominations from businesses wishing to sit on the county’s new prosperity partnership board to drive economic success.

It follows the government’s announcement last summer that the functions of local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) would now be integrated into upper tier local authorities, such as Hampshire County Council.

Hampshire says the aim is to have the new board selected by the end of April this year.

The government wants a large percentage of board places occupied by businesses and/or their representatives.

The change means authorities like the county council will be charged with delivering Whitehall’s policies for economic development including growth hub and careers hub functions.

A shadow board made up of councillors, education representatives and businesses leaders from across Hampshire met in January this year and is in charge of recruiting the board.

A prospectus detailing the board roles and how to put forward nominations can be seen here.

It says successful applicants will play a “direct role in influencing Hampshire’s economic growth and skills agenda as part of a balanced, diverse group of highly motivated and dynamic individuals from business, the public sector and education”.

LEPs were established 13 years ago by the then Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in a bid to ensure that local economic growth was in line with what local businesses said they needed. The partnerships set up Growth Hubs, which had funding to support ambitious start-ups, scale-ups and entrepreneurs

LEPs also secured millions of pounds in government funding for major strategic and infrastructure projects – colleges, roads, technology hubs.

Back in February 2022, a levelling up white paper from Westminster set out a very clear direction of travel for LEPs.

In it, the government anticipated that “all LEPs will eventually fully integrate into local democratic institutions in line with our mission to offer a devolution deal to everywhere that wants one by 2030”.

For many, including the former Solent LEP (now moving forward as Solent Partners), this has now come to pass.

• hants.gov.uk

To get the best of Hampshire Biz News straight to your inbox every week, sign up for our newsletter!