Regional Planning and Development

Question

The Coalition Government has reversed years of centralisation to rebalance our economy so it can achieve strong, lasting growth that shares prosperity more widely across the country.

We have put power in the hands of local councils and businesses:

• 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships bringing together business and civic leaders to drive their own economic development and fulfil growth potential.

• City Deals and Growth Deals offering localities the opportunity for a deal with central government tailored to their local needs and circumstances – devolving power in exchange for local commitment and investment.

• Introduced the general power of competence that enables councils to do anything that an individual might do, apart from that which is specifically prohibited.

• Removed ring-fencing from local government grants to give councils the freedom and flexibility over the money they receive and allows them to work with their residents to decide how best to make their spending decisions to fit their local priority needs.

We have radically reformed the local government finance system by removing top-down national targets and strategies and replaced with powerful incentives for local areas to drive growth.

• Business rates reform, New Homes Bonus and Community Infrastructure Levy will also ensure councils and communities feel real benefits from development and are incentivised to grow the local economy

• Created 24 Enterprise Zones with the prospect of business rates discounts and planning simplification for businesses and business rates retention for the locality, and supported by £54 million from the Local Infrastructure Fund.

And we are investing in local economies to unlock wider investment, jobs and housing through the Regional Growth Fund and the European Regional Development Fund.

Through Growth Deals we are devolving £12 billion of funding from 2015-16 to 2020-21 to local leaders and businesses to spend on local priorities. The first £6 billion of local projects to have been agreed under the first wave of Growth Deals were announced on the 7th July, and will see investment in local infrastructure, skills, housing, business support and innovation. These projects will provide thousands of new jobs and homes as well as improving infrastructure across the country.

The Deals also mean that places will get additional powers to take greater control over the economic levers they need to unlock growth. More details on the Growth Deals can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-growth-deals

We are also for the first time putting £5 billion of European Structural Investment Funds for the 2014-20 period under the strategic direction of Local Enterprise Partnerships, bringing the total resource (including the Local Growth Fund) under the control of Local Enterprise Partnerships to over £17 billion up until 2020.

Taken together, these measures are empowering and strengthening local economies.