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Local councils will be forced by Whitehall to collate data on their business communities to improve skills delivery and planning. Local authorities will be given a new duty to map business activity to develop new industries and make better use of regional investment money. Rosie Winterton, in her role as minister for regional economic development, revealed the plans as part of renewed support for regional government. The Government believes mapping will drive better skills delivery to employers to answer criticisms made by trade bodies such as the CBI that school and college-leavers often fail to have the skills to match local employment needs. Councils will be able to identify developing trends among small and medium-sized enterprises – as well as the businesses themselves – so they can then benefit from investments being pumped into the area from regional level. New industries, such as carbon capture and hi-tech manufacturing, could be identified early so government resources can then be matched to support them. Ministers also hope the initiative will drive better working with further education colleges, which are not bound by local authority boundaries. Ms Winterton told The MJ: ‘One of the things which has been very clear is that local authorities do have a good knowledge of the local business community in their area – and its needs. ‘What we want to do is maximise this knowledge so we can then translate it into knowing what businesses need in the future. ‘Local authorities will be required to carry out economic assessments of their locality. What we want is a clear role for local authorities in their economies,' she said.

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WHITEHALL

Duty will force councils to enhance local skills

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