The Chancellor of the Exchequer yesterday set out new powers for Local Enterprise Partnerships, giving them a bigger role in local strategic planning and a bigger say in the allocation of funding for large-scale projects designed to kick start the economy in their local areas.

In his statement he also announced that Oxford City has been successful in its bid to become a super-connected broadband city. The bid, which was supported by Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership with grant money, will now allow the city to have super-fast broadband speeds equivalent to the world’s top digital cities.

The new measures announced for Local Enterprise Partnerships adopt recommendations made by Lord Heseltine whose recent report published at the end of October proposed new ways to boost economic growth and build a sustainable economic recovery.

In line with these new powers, Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership is leading the development of a new strategic plan for economic growth for Oxfordshire. It is consulting with local business organisations through the Partnership’s board members and driving forward work on a multi-year plan which will include existing national plans and programmes.

Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership is benefitting from annual funding of £250,000 to increase its capacity and enable it to fully support the delivery of these strategic plans

In further efforts to devolve funding decisions away from central government, Local Enterprise Partnerships and business leaders are to be given a greater say in where government funding for projects is targeted. Bids by Local Enterprise partnerships for investment for new projects and initiatives will be made from a single pot for local areas from April 2015. Bids for this pot will also include projects that involve transport, housing, skills and schemes to get people back into work.

Following the success of City Deals initiatives that have also devolved decision making powers down to local level, the government will make available a new concessionary public works loan to fund infrastructure projects proposed by Local Enterprise Partnerships with a cap on total borrowing nationally to be put at £1.5 billion.

£350 million of new funding was also announced for the Regional Growth Fund, to provide support for jobs and growth across England until the end of this Parliament. Local Enterprise Partnerships will also be given a say in skills policy, working in partnership with further education colleges to draw up skills strategies in that take account of the skills requirements of local areas.

Adrian Shooter, Chairman of the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership said, “The announcements in the autumn statement confirm the scale of the challenge confronting us all in rebuilding our economic prosperity. Oxfordshire has the potential to make a significant contribution to this process by realising the huge potential of its existing strengths - world class universities, research infrastructure, skilled people, beautiful environment, well located for creating new and growing businesses able to compete globally. The Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership is excited by the opportunities outlined by government to provide leadership and support to realising Oxfordshire’s immense potential”.

The Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership is also currently offering funding for businesses through its Growing Places Fund. £4 million has been made available to businesses in a second round of funding to finance the construction of new premises and a range of other facilities for local firms. The closing date for bids is until 11 January 2013.

In order to fully understand the needs of local businesses, to support them with their growth and the creation of new jobs, the Partnership has launched a Barriers to Business Growth – Six Monthly Survey. It will identify the areas in which businesses are experiencing the greatest difficulty and the issues preventing them from growing and developing. Results from the survey, due in the New Year, will be used to help to decide where investment needs to be made to overcome the major barriers to business growth.