October 2012: what's new at Athey Consulting

In June 2012 I was asked to become the Interim Executive Director of Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership – one of the 39 new Local Enterprise Partnership’s in England that have been set up to progress local economic growth and jobs.
Its been an enjoyable and challenging role – and very varied. My tasks have involved board liaison and management, setting out the overall vision and strategy of the organisation as well as leading the writing and publishing of the consultation draft of our new economic strategy – the Growth Prospectus. As well as the visioning work, there has been much practical work such as Regional Growth Fund bids, managing the core team, financial planning and reporting. I’ve also been closely involved in helping to recruit a new Chair to the board. One of the best parts of the role is going out and meeting local partners and stakeholders and learning about the very real economic opportunities and challenges. I am hoping we can use these local insights to create initiatives and funding opportunities that are sensitive to local needs whilst achieving high impacts.
My insight into LEPs is that they are new, exciting initiatives, with significant differences between them. However many are at early stages, and in particular, it has been challenging to establish capacity to start delivering real impacts. The recent announcement of LEP core funding from BIS/CLG will be really helpful for us going forward.
Meanwhile – I am seeing a lot of discussion and use of the report I did for the LEP Network earlier in 2012 – the LEP Network Annual Review of LEP-Area Economies 2012 – which is really satisfying. I think there will be a refresh to this report in early 2013.
If you want to get in touch to discuss my work and LEPs – please don’t hesitate – see the contact details on this site.