Ed Cox of the IPPR has launched a document today “Rebalancing Local Economies” in which the IPPR have paired up places to test out why certain places improve while other places with very similar characteristics continue to decline. Speaking at the R&R Northern Regeneration Summit today, Mr Cox questioned what powers and what incentives would be ceded to LEPs. Politicians are clear about the freedoms accorded to LEPs, he said, not what they will be empowered to do.
Howard Bernstein went on to point out that the LEPs are being formed in the absence of any settlement between local and national government. He warned against dismantling the RDAs for their powers to be then merely assumed by the centre. He says that that wouldn’t be localism in his book!
The Chair of the session asked what the difference is between localism and fragmentation and a lack of integration?
