Council calls for fairer funding for rural areas

Shropshire Council’s Cabinet will next week (15 June) be asked to approve a strong lobbying campaign through local MPs and business leaders, to express concern to the government at the way that rural areas such as Shropshire and the Marches are being neglected for economic development funding.

The move comes after a £36m bid from the newly-formed Marches LEP to the government’s £1.4bn Regional Growth Fund (RGF) was unsuccessful.

The Marches LEP is the economic development partnership vehicle for Shropshire, Herefordshire and Telford & Wrekin.

Under the first round of the Regional Growth Fund the Marches LEP had bid for £36m to spend on projects including: schemes to improve the electricity infrastructure in Whitchurch; further development of the Shropshire Food Enterprise Centre; a new Oswestry marina; a new precision livestock centre at University College Harper Adams; new enterprise centres across Shropshire, and a new link road in Hereford.

Each of these bids was unsuccessful, and the LEP is now considering lobbying government, as well as exploring the viability of re-submitting any of these unsuccessful bids to round two of the RGF. The deadline for submitting bids is 1 July.

As well as agreeing to submit the Regional Growth Fund round 2 bid, Cabinet will also be asked to agree to the submission of an LEP Enterprise Zone proposal, and an LEP start-up fund bid.

In the budget the government announced the creation of 21 Enterprise Zones, which will offer business rate discounts and other benefits. Eleven zones were named and the further 10 will be selected by competition. A proposal for an EZ in the Marches LEP area will be submitted to government by the end of June.

The £5m LEP start-up fund is a one-off pot of money to fund such things as a member of staff, premises costs, office equipment and training. Cabinet will be asked to agree that a bid is submitted by the 30 June deadline.

Councillor Mike Owen, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for economic growth and prosperity, said: “The Marches LEP has made good progress in the eight months since it was formed, and a strong foundation and structure has been established.

“We are extremely disappointed that the LEP’s bid for Regional Growth Fund money was unsuccessful and we want the government to recognise that rural areas such as Shropshire and the Marches can also make a real impact on enterprise creation and private sector job growth.”

Following the recent appointment of Dr Geoffrey Davies OBE as chairman, the Marches LEP Board has moved from shadow to full status. The Board is composed of the three Business Board chairs, and three council leaders, from each area. These have been joined by three co-opted business champions: Sir Ben Gill, Gharry Eccles – CEO of Muller Dairy (UK), and Professor Ian Oakes of Wolverhampton University (the higher and further education champion).

The LEP vision is ‘to create the conditions for a strong, diverse and enterprising business base resulting in an increase in sustainable private sector jobs.’

The Marches LEP was formally launched on Tuesday 7 June 2011 in the House of Commons with Mark Prisk, the Minister for Business Innovation and Skills, and all the MPs from the Marches.

For more information visit www.marcheslep.org.uk.

The agenda and reports for Cabinet on 15 June can be found by clicking here.