close

Devolving power to local regions brings huge opportunity – but are we ready?

When Lord Heseltine delivered his influential and comprehensive “No Stone Unturned” report to government in October 2012, it is fair to say that not everyone around the Coalition Cabinet table agreed with his conclusions.

Typically he pulled few punches within the 89 recommendations as he set out his vision for tackling the “worst economic crisis in modern times”. To invite criticism, he said, is a sign of strength. To accept it is a sign of confidence.

Two years on some of that Coalition that confidence is clearly still lacking as not all of his recommendations have been embraced wholeheartedly. 

This is a clear opportunity for the engineering and consultancy sector to take a lead. To drive vision into the local agenda and win public funding for the infrastructure that can genuinely lead the transformation of pubic services and business opportunities across the nation.

Yet, speaking at the ACE annual conference last week, Lord Heseltine was confident that, despite the continued slow progress from the “first steps towards a local agenda” he reported in 2012, his recommendation to “unleash the dynamic potential” of the nation’s regions was moving ahead. 

“Big government doesn’t work” he declared two years ago, preferring instead to lever strength in the regions with the support of central government. Thus devolving funding from central government to Local Enterprise Partnerships was a central theme of his plans to revitalise the UK economy.

It is therefore an important milestone in July when government, with no small input from Lord Heseltine, reveals settlements across the 39 LEPs – funding which could be worth perhaps £50M a year to each region as the basis for leveraging multiples from the private sector.

His description of the process as being “transformational” is bang on. An injection of funds on this scale, controlled by the people who best understand the need, will surely be capable of bringing about real change and economic growth.

Yet with such large sums involved, the worrying question mark that still hangs over the process, one that Heseltine himself accepted must still be tackled, is the variable quality of leadership that exists across the 39 LEPs. 

And given that under Heseltine’s scrutiny, funding will have to be competed for and each LEP will seek to make a case for a as big as possible slice of the pie, the question remains how quickly can these powerful organisations be given the leadership strength that they need?

Right now there are a number of very effective and well organised LEPs which, drawing on local business skills and enthusiasms, will inevitably reap early reward. The challenge for the rest must therefore be to use this first round of funding as a spur to seek out the brightest and best business talent to underpin ambition.

This is a clear opportunity for the engineering and consultancy sector to take a lead - to drive vision into the local agenda and win public funding for the infrastructure that can genuinely lead the transformation of pubic services and business opportunities across the nation.

It is, without question, an opportunity not to be missed. And as Lord Heseltine puts it, “every one of us needs to rise to the challenge”.

Antony Oliver is the editor of Infrastructure Intelligence

If you would like to contact Antony Oliver about this, or any other story, please email antony.oliver@infrastructure-intelligence.com.