Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership inquiry

What the inquiry looked at

“Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs are business-led partnerships between local authorities and private sector to drive economic growth locally. There are 38 LEPs across England. The Government has committed £9.1 billion of its Local Growth Fund to deals with LEPs. The Government has a national framework to ensure that LEPs are managed well. LEPs are overseen by the Ministry for Housing, Community and Local Government. In March 2017, Stephen Barclay MP wrote to the National Audit Office expressing concerns about Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough LEP (GCGP LEP), which covered his constituency. Concerns included GCGP LEP’s relationship with local developers, and how it managed conflicts of interests. Following these concerns the then-Department for Communities and Local Government suspended funding to GCGP LEP pending a review. In September 2017, the Department decided to continue withholding funding from the LEP. It released funding in November 2017 to cover only the LEP’s essential running costs. However, at the GCGP LEP board of 19 December 2017 it was noted that Central Government would give the LEP no further money, and all board members agreed to resign so the company could enter voluntary liquidation. The Public Accounts Committee will ask representatives from the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government, along with Peterborough City Council and Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership, about how the situation deteriorated and what lessons can be learned for the future.”

The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.

What the government said

How the inquiry ran

What it recommended

The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in 26th Report - Governance and departmental oversight of the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership ↗ on parliament.uk.

Evidence

Oral evidence sessions 1

Correspondence 2 letters