LEPs must prove themselves, says Chamber boss

Stephen Wright, who is also managing director of Thorite, the Bradford-based compressed air products and processes company which has helped to produce spectacular explosions and special effects on soap operas and TV dramas, said most of the criticism directed at LEPs stemmed from the fact that people didn’t realise what the aims of the organisation were.

Mr Wright said: “There are still a lot of businesses out there that don’t understand what the LEP is, its aims and what it should be doing. So I think a lot of dissent is from that and there is a lot of communication still to do.”

Speaking at the Leeds City Region summit last month, Bradford East MP David Ward called for more voices representing his city’s business sector on the LEP board.

However, Mr Wright said he was happy with Bradford’s representation within the LEP. “I’m more happy than I was a few months ago,” he said. “I have realised that there are a few people standing up for Bradford in the wider LEP environment.

“It is easy to sit outside and chuck stones but it’s more difficult to be inside and constructive.”

Mr Wright said that it looked like lots of good ideas were being generated within the Leeds City Region LEP but added its success would be determined on “how the whole thing hangs together”. He added that life would get tougher for the LEP in the future as it strives to prove itself.

“They need to prove they can deliver,” he said. “We are at such an early stage that it’s difficult to point to something to say what they have done so far. They are in listening mode at the moment.”

He added: “We have got to break down what is happening in the global economy at the moment into what is happening in the UK and regional economies. Businesses I’m talking to at the moment, with the exception of construction, say that in the last six to 12 months they have been okay but it’s uncertain how the global market is going to impact them.”