Council Leader Welcomes Humber LEP
09 June 2011 by Visit Scunthorpe Editors
Last week Visit Scunthorpe were very pleased to announce the submission of a proposal to the government to form a Humber Wide LEP.
This may come as a surprise to some as the current leadership of the council had previously favoured North Lincolnshire joining a Lincolnshire Based LEP.
Fortunately however, North Lincolnshire has teamed up with North East Lincolnshire, Hull and East Yorkshire to form a Humber Wide Local Enterprise Partnership, which has now received the go ahead from Greg Clark the Minister for Communities and Local Government.
Throughout the planning and preparation stages of this bid, Mark Kirk (now leader of the opposition) has always pledged that this is in the best interest of businesses and workers alike, and has estimated that anything between 5,000 and 20,000 jobs may be created as a result of it.
This is good news, coming at a time that Tata Steel have announced 1,200 job losses at the Scunthorpe Site despite posting a $2Bn profit in May 2011. Job losses at the Tata long products division are due mainly to a lack of work in construction, and are a direct consequence of the removal of government funding for a lot of public building work, including the Schools for the Future program.
It is hoped that the formation of a Humber LEP will create opportunities in the renewable energy field, despite the recent planning rejection of a new wind farm in the North Lincolnshire area.
In a statement released today, Liz Redfern, the leader of the council who has now vowed to continue to work towards the Humber LEP Plan put forward by her predecessor said:
“I’m delighted that our bid has been given the green light. It’s wonderful news and means we can now get on with setting the Partnership up. First we need to set up a shadow board and I’
m hoping we can all get together as early as next week. I can’t wait to get started.
“It’s good to see that Mr Clark approved our bid. He recognises that the Partnership has the ambition, ideas and business involvement to exploit the potential for growth across the Humber area.
“It is the right decision. It brings businesses and councils from both sides of the Humber together. Strength in numbers will certainly give us a far better chance of attracting much needed investment to the Humber region.
“By standing united, we can unlock the huge potential for future economic grow
th and create thousands of jobs and become the international centre for renewable energy.
“Time is of the essence. We mean business and we will ensure that we deliver. People want to see action, not words.”
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