The government has withdrawn funding from business boards, successors to local enterprise partnerships (LEPs), and in Tees Valley the decision appears to have taken immediate effect.
In a brief note on its website on 20 March, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said: “The decision has now been taken to proceed with the withdrawal of central government funding for former LEP functions and for the Business Board Network. We recognise that the withdrawal of funding will have local impacts, which will be for local authorities and combined authorities to consider and manage.”
The Tees Valley Board was due to meet tomorrow (Monday 24 March) but a check on the Tees Valley Combined Authority’s (TVCA) website late last week revealed nothing – no summons to the meeting, no agenda, no minutes of the previous meeting, no reports for consideration.
Not long afterwards the draft minutes of the previous meeting on 27 January had also disappeared, though papers of all earlier meetings, held between January and October 2024, remain available in the archive.
Caught by surprise
Even those of us who follow these matters were taken by surprise, though we should not have been. The government announced in the budget on 30 October that it was “minded to end central government funding for the core functions formerly delivered by LEPs – namely business representation, local economic planning, and the delivery of government programmes where directed.” The announcement also indicated that the government was minded to end central government funding for the Business Board Network.
“The MHCLG carried out a public consultation between 20 January and 10 February 2025 to invite comments on the impacts of the withdrawal of funding,” said the Ministry. “We received responses from a number of stakeholders, including local authorities, combined authorities, chambers of commerce, the Local Government Association, and the Business Board Network.”
In fact – for those of us who had forgotten – it turns out that the previous government decided in the Spring Budget of 2023 to defund core LEP functions and integrate them into local authorities and combined authorities and provided funding to councils and combined authorities for that purpose.
The MHCLG added: “The withdrawal of funding should not be interpreted to mean that it is government’s view that delivery of similar functions should not continue, either in local authorities or combined authorities.
“The English Devolution Accountability Framework sets out that all institutions with devolved powers should embed strong, independent, and diverse local business voices into their decision-making processes; and as set out in the English Devolution White Paper, mayors will have a statutory duty to produce local growth plans (LGPs). We expect the development of LGPs to be informed by engagement with the private sector.”
A LGP for the North East was announced last week by Mayor Kim McGuinness, as reported in North East Bylines on 21 March.
Voice of business
For the record, according to the TVCA website this is what the Tees Valley Business Board, chaired by Siobhan McArdle, did during its brief lifespan:
“Tees Valley Business Board plays a defining role in representing the voice of local business. It feeds into the work of the Tees Valley Mayor, Combined Authority and local authorities, to advise on, establish and help lead projects, schemes and programmes that deliver real change to our local economy. The board is led by private sector experts with hands-on experience of running successful businesses or working in senior positions, with a breadth of diverse business knowledge covering the entire region.”
Siobhan McArdle, according to the TVCA website, is founder of The Strategy House, a strategic planning and turnaround consultancy established in 2020, and Group CEO of L3COS, a global, technology group.
In her role as chair of the Business Board she is entitled to attended on the TVCA cabinet as a non-voting member.
The North East LEP was abolished a year ago and the business sector is represented on the North East Combined Authority by a non-voting member, as is the voluntary and community sector. There is no North East Business Board.
The government is carrying out a ruthless reform of QUANGOs at present, most notably by abolishing NHS England, as discussed in North East Bylines on 15 March. Business boards seem to be one more victim of this process.
The decision on business board funding has also been announced on MHCLG’s Citizen Space page.
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