Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership
Planning, Housing and Transport We are already producing a private sector led analysis on land use, ensuring emerging proposals will accurately reflect the requirements of employers, investors and occupiers. The resulting Greater Manchester Spatial Framework will be based on research commissioned by the Business Leadership Council and will provide the framework for assessing spatial investment and development proposals across Greater Manchester for the next 15 years. This will include, for example, housing proposals through Greater Manchester’s second Local Investment Plan, and transport proposals through the Local Transport Plan 3 and actions to build on the growth support functions of Greater Manchester’s green infrastructure. The LEP will oversee the integration of this Framework into our wider strategy for directing investment.
Research and Strategy Development The LEP will provide private sector input and clear governance for centres of excellence for research, analysis, strategy, performance management and evaluation in Greater Manchester, coordinating expertise across disciplines, keeping our strategy under review, and ensuring continued focus on economic growth priorities and driving efficiencies.
Prioritisation We are exploring with Government the case for piloting a ‘single pot’ of funding for economic development, transport, and housing. Discussions include the development of a new methodology for prioritising investment to ensure economic outcomes are maximised, deprivation is tackled and dependency reduced. Whilst primary responsibility for prioritising funding decisions will rest with the Combined Authority, as the primary democratic accountable body, we see the LEP playing an important part in this work, bringing a strong private sector input to decisions. We are committed to demonstrating how localism can drive economic growth and reduce public spending in a way that specifically protects the most vulnerable in society. We are exploring with Government the new ways of working and the associated freedom to make evidence based decisions, arising from a robust and pioneering cost benefit analysis, over the deployment of public sector resources. We are developing robust multi-agency commissioning models which reflect the needs and priorities of local neighbourhoods.
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