WHITEHALL

Budget 2023: Hunt sounds the death knell for LEPs

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has unveiled a Budget that has sounded the death knell for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), but revived the levelling up agenda.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has unveiled a Budget that has sounded the death knell for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), but revived the levelling up agenda.

Reiterating local government's role at the heart of economic growth, Mr Hunt vowed to hand powers from LEPs to councils.

Budget documents added: ‘The Government is minded to withdraw central Government support for LEPs from April 2024.

‘DLUHC [Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities] and the Department for Business and Trade will now consult on these proposals, before confirming a decision.'

The move comes more than a year after levelling up secretary Michael Gove said he was minded to scrap the bodies.

Mr Hunt announced a raft of new levelling up partnerships, with £400m in investment to go to 20 areas across England.

A further £200m is on offer for regeneration, £200m extra for potholes and road improvements, and a further £100m for charities and community groups.

Acknowledging the Government's stalled plans for local government finance reform, the Budget revealed plans to work with councils to expand local business rate retention, with a pledge to ‘bring wider proposals to improve the local government finance landscape in the next Parliament'.

The chancellor claimed the Government's success on devolution would go further, with a new wave of deals to be negotiated in the coming year.

Budget documents said the deals will include ‘local investment funding for areas that are committed to a mayor or directly-elected leader'.

As the Office for Budget Responsibility predicted the UK would avoid a technical recession and grow by 1.8%, and inflation would fall back to 2.9% by the end of the year, Mr Hunt revealed his plans to boost the economy.

The latest figures announced by the Office for National Statistics yesterday revealed unemployment remained at a near-record low at 3.7%.

Mr Hunt announced plans to ‘remove barriers to work,' including getting more disabled people and those on Universal Credit into work, and amended pension rules to make it more attractive for older workers to remain in employment.

He announced 30 hours of childcare for all children over nine months in households where all adults work.

The Budget also revealed a £60m fund for public swimming pools.

LEPs to be scrapped

Hunt confirms investment zone cash

Hunt to boost mayors' financial autonomy

Hunt confirms £200m for 'potholes curse'

WHITEHALL

On the track to growth

By Ann McGauran | 20 May 2025

Steve Rotheram speaks to Ann McGauran about Liverpool City Region’s growth prospects, tackling the challenge from Reform UK, and the need for the Spending Re...

WHITEHALL

Time to empower the places that matter

By Ravi Gurumurthy | 16 May 2025

Labour's Neighbourhood Commission is not just good politics, but good policy says Ravi Gurumurthy.

WHITEHALL

EXCLUSIVE: Push for local PACs slows amid Whitehall scepticism

By EXCLUSIVE by Dan Peters and Martin Ford | 15 May 2025

Support for establishing local versions of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) across England is softening as the Government ponders whether to push the idea.

WHITEHALL

Why the Total Place bandwagon should roll again

By Michael Burton | 15 May 2025

John Denham was Labour’s communities secretary 15 years before Angela Rayner. He tells Michael Burton why he would not have embarked on wholescale local gove...

Heather Jameson

Popular articles by Heather Jameson