The economy is always a big political issue, but its impact at general elections fluctuates in inverse proportion to the degree of recent economic turmoil. When things are going well, the electorate focuses on what to do with the fruits of growth. But, when a Parliament is punctuated by skirmishes over GDP figures, there is a tendency to examine where the growth comes from.

It comes as no surprise then, that Localis’s recent report, The Next LEPs, which explores the role that Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) play in local economies in the next Parliament, has been well received across political, policy and media spheres.

The starting point for the research was the common ground between all the major parties that LEPs would continue into the next Parliament. Speaking in support of our report, Chukka Umunna has said that Labour would give LEPs ‘the powers and budgets they need’, while the growing importance of LEPs to the coalition’s economic policy has been evident over the last couple of years. So who did we talk to and what did we conclude?