Local government needs to ‘get on board' with the Government's plans to boost the economy, a senior business leader has claimed in this week's The MJ. Writing in the wake of the launch of local government minister John Healey's plans to take forward the sub-national review (SNR), director general of the British Chamber of Commerce, David Frost, claims it is businesses driving the local economies and creating local jobs. He also claims councils should involve local businesses ‘much more seriously' in economic decisions. Mr Frost was responding to a comment in The MJ (3 April), in which editor, Michael Burton, argued: ‘Most councils have been taking a proactive role in economic development for years. They don't need to be told by ministers to do it.' But the BCC claims the picture is varied in different local authority areas. BCC policy adviser, Kevin Hoctor, told The MJ: ‘There needs to be better engagement with the private sector.' He claimed councils had ‘got away with' not including the business community while there was economic prosperity, but all that would change if there was an economic downturn, as is now widely predicted. Local Government Association (LGA) programme director, Paul Raynes, defended the role of local authorities, claiming: ‘Councils do have an economic role – and they have been doing it well for years'. But he agreed the local business community ‘needs to be part of the debate'. Under the plans outlined in The MJ by John Healey, there would be a duty on councils to produce an economic assessment of their area. These would be used by the local regional development agency to draw up a regional development strategy. Mr Raynes told The MJ: ‘We argued for the duty and we support it.'
