The government has given the green light to 24 partnerships between local businesses and councils to replace regional development agencies (RDAs).

Speaking today in parliament, business secretary Vince Cable said that 24 groups of local authorities and private companies had successfully bid over the summer to form so-called local enterprise partnerships, which will replace RDAs when they are abolished in April 2012.

The successful bids are:

• Birmingham & Solihull with East Staffordshire, Lichfield &Tamworth
• Cheshire and Warrington
• Coast to Capital: Brighton and Hove, Croydon, the Gatwick Diamond and West Sussex
• Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly
• Coventry & Warwickshire
• Cumbria
• Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough
• Greater Manchester
• Hertfordshire
• Kent, Greater Essex & East Sussex
• Leeds City Region
• Leicester & Leicestershire
• Lincolnshire
• Liverpool City Region
• Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby, & Derbyshire
• Oxfordshire City Region
• Sheffield City Region
• Solent
• South East Midlands
• Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire
• Tees Valley
• Thames Valley Berkshire
• The Marches
• West of England

Cable, who was introducing a white paper on regional growth today, said these partnerships would be given the powers over planning, infrastructure, and inward investment. He also said he would introduce a duty to cooperate over planning between different local authorities.

Private companies up and down the UK signed up to having some involvement in local enterprise partnerships as part of the bidding process.

Cable said:

“The knowledge and expertise of the private sector, local authorities and their local communities will be crucial as we work to create a better environment for business and ensure that everyone has access to the opportunities that growth brings.

“The measures set out in today’s White Paper demonstrate the Coalition’s ambition to create a fairer and more balanced economy – one that is driven by private sector growth with business opportunities spread more evenly across the country and between industries.”

Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles said: “Over the last decade, the country’s economy became skewed by artificial boundaries and top-down prescription that did not work. We want to create a fairer and more balanced economy driven by private sector strength, and our plan for local growth will create local enterprise partnerships, reform the planning system and introduce development incentives for local authorities, like allowing them to keep their business rates, so all parts of the country benefit.”

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