The Local Economy Network - 19 October 2011

The future role of Local Government in developing and supporting their Local Economies

On Wednesday, 19 October 2011 a very informative and stimulating workshop took place at the Gujarati Hindu Centre in Preston. 35 delegates attended with a mix of Elected Members and Practitioners involved in the local economic regeneration within local authorities and agencies in the North West.

Concerns over current economic circumstances are running high with many communities being affected by the slow economic recovery from the recession, increased unemployment, public sector cutbacks and rising prices.

Local Government has a very strong track record in Economic Regeneration with outstanding performance by many councils, but due to heavy constraints on current financial resources, new ways of supporting local economies need to be considered.

At the workshop last week we had contributions from specialists who explored the current policy context, background issues and how councils can define and develop their future role in local economies as a result of major economic change, budgetary pressures, the emergence of LEPs and changes in key support agencies such as the NWDA, Skills Funding Agency and the Work Programme. These changes mean that we need to look at new and innovative ways of stimulating the local economy.

Below is a short summary of the workshop sessions. Speaker presentations can be found in related documents to the right of this page.

John Holden. Deputy Director, Research at New Economy Manchester looked at some of the economic challenges we face. Within the context of international and national macro economic trends, he reviewed key aspects of the North West economy together with some key issues at sub-regional level.

Derek Whyte, Preston City Council and Martin Peace, Cheshire West and Chester gave the local government perspective from the 'coal-face'. They looked at some of the difficult decisions they have both been through on budgets / staffing and offered suggestions on how local authorities can work within the new context.

Mike Damms Chief Executive of the East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce reviewed the new landscape for enterprise and business support and the role that Chambers can play. Chambers in some areas are taking a leading role in supporting LEPs and the Chamber nationally has won the role of coordinating the national LEP Network.

Paul Hardman from A4E demonstrated how the New Work Programme is progressing within his company’s areas (Liverpool City Region, Lancashire and Cumbria) and how local authorities can engage with the process. The Prime Contactors for delivering the new Work Programme were appointed in July 2011and, although it is early days yet, it is vital that there is a strong dialogue between contractors and local authorities.

Neil Hind from NWIEP and John Finlay from the NW Construction Hub and Manchester City Council showed how we can use local procurement to support local economies and offered some examples from across the region. Essentially the message was local economic benefits should be built into procurement and construction frameworks from the start; and no longer be seen as ‘add ons’ to contracts.

Neil McIlroy, Chief Executive of CLES rounded off the workshop with a look at how local authorities have responded strategically to the recent economic and organisational challenges. He offered his view on how the Place Agenda can help shape local authority responses.

Groups were invited to discuss:

a) What are your top three priorities in supporting the local economy?

b) What action will you take away from today to implement?

A summary of the responses from the discussion groups are attached in related documents to the right.

What Next?

Our next Local Economy Network event will focus on LEPs and is being held on Wednesday, 14 December 2011 at the Gujarati Hindu Centre, Preston. You can book on to this event by CLICK HERE.

If you would like to be kept in touch of future activities of the Local Economy Network please register your interest with us at events@nwemployers.org.uk