South East Local Enterprise Partnership

SELEP Logo The South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) operates across the geographical counties of East Sussex, Essex and Kent including three unitary authorities - Medway, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock.

The Chairman is John Spence and the Vice Chairman for Essex is George Kieffer.

Contacts

You can keep up to date with the latest news from SELEP on Twitter @SouthEastLEP or request to be added to the weekly briefing email from the SELEP Secretariat.

FSB Involvement

Essex FSB and East Sussex FSB each has a seat on the main SELEP Board.

In addition FSB Development Manager, Keith Brown, chairs the SELEP Communications Group and the SELEP Procurement Task and Finish Group.

Background

The South East Local Enterprise Partnership was approved by the Coalition Government in November 2010. It exists to enable the conditions for business growth at a strategic level.

It does this by bringing together leaders from business, local government and further and higher education to articulate the area's strategic priorities and work in partnership to develop solutions to remove barriers to growth.

It is the largest strategic LEP in England and has a combined population of 3.9 million people, which is larger than any UK city region outside of London.

SELEP is home to more than 130,000 businesses supporting more than 1.3 million jobs and is a critical port and gateway area in the strategic location between London and European markets.

Objectives

SELEP is a strategic body and will focus its efforts on areas of cross-border economic importance where there is added value in working together. The single goal for the LEP is to promote steady, sustained economic growth over the next two decades.

In order to support the joint business and public sector overarching goal, the LEP Board has agreed four strategic objectives:

secure the growth of the Thames Gateway led by Councillor Rodney Chambers of Medway Council
promote investment in our coastal communities led by Councillor Nigel Holdcroft of Southend-on-Sea Borough Council
strengthen our rural economy led by John Regan, a businessman from Kent
strengthen the competitive advantage of strategic growth locations led by Nicholas Cook of Heart of Essex delivery group

The Board has also identified four enabling activities which the LEP will focus on in order to realise its vision, overarching goal and the four strategic objectives set out above:

Enabling activity 1: strategic transport Infrastructure led by Councillor John Kent of Thurrock Council
Enabling activity 2: universal superfast broadband led by Rupert Clubb of East Sussex County Council
Enabling activity 3: skills led by Bill Fearon of K College
Enabling activity 4: new financial instruments led by John Spence of West Essex Alliance delivery group

In addition research into key industrial sectors is being led by County Councillor Peter Martin of Essex County Council.

Your Views

Please email your comments on Local Enterprise Partnerships to Essex FSB Development Manager Keith Brown so we can include them on this web page and in other publications.

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