Member Article

Time to get involved with Black Country LEP

Ninder Johal, Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership board member, and chair of the Black Country Asian Business Association, shares his views on progress in the LEP.

Since taking up my position on the board of the Black Country LEP I have made it a priority of mine to get more businesses involved with our work.

In a report published on the work of LEPs last week by an All Party Parliamentary Group, they made a recommendation for LEPS to “widen and deepen engagement with a broader spectrum of local businesses”.

This is exactly what I am working at here in the Black Country and hope this national recognition of the issue will help encourage more companies from a range of sectors to come forward and support the work of the LEP.

We have engagement events running throughout the year and can be followed on twitter and LinkedIn and businesses can also sign up to e- bulletins of latest news and developments.

Last week’s report offered the first official snapshot into where LEPs are at and where they should be heading in the coming months and years.

The report offered eight recommendations to government, three recommendations to LEPs and one recommendation to local authorities, in order to support local growth in the future.

All LEPs had been asked for their views in preparation of the report and we were pleased to see contributions from the Black Country LEP highlighted in the document. The Black Country LEP is specifically featured on two of the recommendations to government around devolving more powers to LEP areas and the need to ensure LEPs have high-level access to government.

Meanwhile recommendations to LEPs included a need to strike the right balance between formulating a strategic vision and delivering projects and, as I mentioned earlier, a need to broaden engagement with the number of local businesses.

We certainly welcome publication of this report that helps to offer an insight into the role of LEPs moving forward. We are proud of the work we have achieved at the Black Country LEP to date but know there is plenty more to be done to support local economic growth.

To get involved with the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership’s work follow @blackcountrylep on twitter join our group on LinkedIn or sign up to our free e-bulletins at www.blackcountrylep.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ninder Johal .