West of England LEP plans to strengthen business representation
The West of England LEP Business Advisory Group meeting took place last week at the Bristol and Bath Science Park. The meeting was very informative and highlighted some of the challenges that a lot of LEPs around the country are still facing, more than one year on since establishment. Colin Skellett, the Chairman of the West of England LEP, updated on major achievements of the Partnership to date and called on businesses to spread the word about the LEP, its activities, and plans. The LEP is also considering expanding the Board membership by adding two more business representatives although keeping the same number of votes. The intention is to increase business involvement whilst avoiding unbalanced voting powers from the point of view of local authorities. An online survey of 411 councillors earlier this year undertaken by ComRes for Willmott Dixon indicated that ‘councillors have a negative impression of private companies, but think LEPs would benefit from greater private sector involvement and will only succeed if private sector partners can be engaged more meaningfully by local government’. Clearly this ‘negative impression’ has been a key issue elsewhere (for example, within Coventry and Warwickshire LEP) and seemingly the West of England Partnership cannot avoid it. The West of England LEP operates in the political environment of a city-region where the interests of its core - City of Bristol - can be at odds with the neighbouring local authorities. The political boundaries become so ingrained in the local psyche that it is difficult to recognise the economic costs of these artificial boundaries. It is mostly businesses that bear increased economic transactional costs in a situation when South Gloucestershire boundary separates chunks of Greater Bristol north and east of the City of Bristol, and when Bristol expansion to the south is barred from North Somerset. Such additional and hidden costs (increased cost of land, excessive transport costs, growing housing costs, and so on) are all burden on the city-region’s economy. They ripple and overspill out of the boundaries of the City of Bristol and into the households of North Somerset and BANE who are dependent on employment in Bristol or with businesses dealing with Bristol. Everything is inter-connected and artificial boundaries mean less economic growth than West of England is capable of achieving. The business involvement is therefore crucial for the LEP and a decision for stronger participation at the Board level is one that has been well thought out. It is now for businesses to get more active and answer the call.
