How the marine sector might fit into the new Local Enterprise Partnerships
Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) are the Government's initiative to rebalance the economy towards private sector economic activities, with a particular emphasis on advanced engineering and manufacturing to achieve export-led growth in high-value employment.
Business investment will be pivotal to increased wealth creation, supported by public infrastructure that encourages such business investment. To achieve this, the objectives and outcomes of LEPs must be jointly 'owned' by private and public sectors.
There is widespread acknowledgement that the maritime industries have a crucial role to play in the growth of enterprise in coastal areas and Marine South East wants to make sure that future LEPs support private sector initiative in practical and effective ways. This will depend on LEPs having an in-depth understanding of maritime sector prioriries and barriers to growth, and Marine South East is well-placed to provide this very diverse sector expertise.
Marine South East interacts with more than 2000 maritime businesses which collectively form the major maritime clusters located in South East England, comprising around 20% of the total UK maritime GDP of almost £50Billion. As a non-profit company, Marine South East implements a wide range of business-led initiatives: collaborative projects to explore specific market and innovation opportunities, networking and meet-the-buyer type events, pilots actions to expand apprenticeships and up-skilling, and a variety of market/impact analyses.
Marine South East is providing inputs to several LEP submissions, including the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire (PUSH) bid and is seeking to ensure that LEPs are genuinely business-led. LEP submissions are currently being finalised and will be submitted to the Government by 6th September; it is envisaged that further information on the future LEPs will be published by Government in a White Paper due October 2010.
Marine South East will continue to keep marine businesses aware of developments via the website http://www.marinesoutheast.co.uk and monthly email newsletters.
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