david marlow: strategic leadership of place: planning, leps and local economies
DESCRIPTION
A presentation at the Planning Advisory Service's LGA Leadership Academy November 2014.TRANSCRIPT
Strategic leadership of place:
Planning, LEPs and Local
Economies
Presentation to: ‘Planning Delivering Economic Growth’
Programme
Name David Marlow
Third Life Economics
Date 29 November 2014
Introductions and agenda for
session... A bit about me...
Four subjects to discuss and develop
What does ‘good’ strategic economic leadership of place look like?
How far will LEPs provide the strategic economic leadership team of places 2015-20?
What issues does ‘LEP-land’ raise for LPAs
A quick look at three frameworks which might help you work through these issues
Not a lecture – nor a PhD – lets work through the topics together
Icebreaker...
Tell me a little bit about a ‘good’ example of local strategic economic leadership of place you have observed in the last decade:- What place?
Who?
What results makes it ‘good’?
What were the key ingredients of success?
A word about leadership theory...
Huge amount of work on organisation leadership
From ‘great man’ to traits, behavioural, situational, transactional to transformational theories
Latest thinking more about dispersed, networked, ‘3-D’, emergent and formative models
Some relevance for local leadership teams, LAs and LEPs as organisations
Challenges of ‘big picture’ change....
Demographics and
social innovation
Science and
technological
innovation
Globalism, recession
and public sector
austerity
Localism and
complexity...
Some fundamentals of place-
shaping
Physical investment-
led
Enterprise, innovation,
and creativity-led
Community
regeneration-led
Positioning and
branding approaches
Integration with LCD
and sustainable
communities
Leadership in the post-GFC context – International
‘good practice’ and the ‘Barcelona Principles’
Major OECD study looked at
local leadership team
responses to recession
Highly relevant process and
content recommendations
...and the coalition game changer in
the UK...
Focus on deficit reduction
Initial strategies of Localism, Rebalancing, Big Society, ‘Open for Business’ etc...
Destruction of regional tier and all Labour approaches (and language)
Gradual refocusing on growth; some re-learning of previous policies; some new ideas
So by 2014 we have ‘instruments’ of the
new language...
New partnerships – LEPs, LTBs, LNPs etc., and local authorities
New policies – NPPF and planning reforms (CIL, NHB etc), EZs, etc.,
New funding instruments – RGF, GPF, LGRR, TIF, LGF, ESIF etc.,...
New sub-regional instruments –CAs; city deals, wave one, two; local growth deals;
New local instruments –community and neighbourhood budgets
Renationalised E&I functions
BUT “let’s party like it’s 2009...”
After lunch, we’ll look at...
How to make some of these new instruments work well in terms of:-
LEPs;
their relationship to LAs, LPAs and place;
LA leadership of the planning system;
How do we put this together coherently and anticipate 2015-20 challenges?
The ‘unusual’ birth of LEPs...
An ‘invitation’ to business and civic leaders – but NOT a requirement/voluntary
No specific roles and functions beyond ‘strategic leadership’
Ideally but not necessarily FEAs
No resources
From Year Zero to Year One....
From voluntary to
universal coverage
Hugely diverse pattern
of economic
geographies
Given some start-up
funding
Given something to do
– RGF, EZs, GPF etc.
The Heseltine approach and
government response...
No stone unturned:- Government ‘system’ too
Piecemeal
Centralised
Decentralise through LEPs and create SLGF
LA reform and metro-mayors
Government response LEP SEPs and SIFs and
LA delivery bodies
The 15% LGF(s) but still £2bnpa
‘Initial’ guidance and ESIF partial, top down opt-ins
Producing the heavy LEP/LA agenda to
2020...
Meeting very significant and complex government expectations, EU compliance and over £12bn of public funding
The opportunity to genuinely build a strategic economic leadership team, shared vision, and intervention strategies
‘No LEP is an island’...
...and neither is economic development
...and a word about HEIs and the ‘missed’ Witty opportunity
How far do your LEPs meet the descriptions of ‘fit for purpose’
strategic economic leadership we discussed before lunch?
Strengths and how we
build on these
Weaknesses and how we
mitigate these
Opportunities and how we realise these
Threats and how we avoid
these
Planning in LEP-land I: A LEP
perspective
The logic of strategic economic leadership of place Planning necessary
The underpinnings of sustainable local growth... Linking housing to
employment growth and vice-versa
The principles of coherent local growth Operates across functional
economic market areas
The practice of SEPs Major infrastructure and
employment investments (including some housing)
Planning in LEP-land...II: A LA
perspective The principles of local leadership
of place and planning decision-making
Statutory process
Democratic accountability and legitimacy
The practice of local planning
Long-run, evidence-based
Based on LA administrative geographies with ‘duty to cooperate with neighbours
The concerns of LEP-land
To whom are they accountable?
Are they really FEMAs/places?
Do they have capacity and capability to deliver?
Planning in LEP-land...III: ‘Difficult issues’
not yet resolved
What is/should be the national spatial strategy?
Implicit/explicit
Rebalancing/market-led
How to make the ‘duty to cooperate’ effective
Dealing with commuting
Future of LEPs
Form and functions
Inevitable variabilities
National and devolution agendas 2015-20
Government...intermediate...LA
Neighbourhood
Competitive or strategic/collaborative
Unknown/unknowns e.g.
UKIP, EU referendum
Genuinely unexpected shocks
Questions, comments and
discussion...
How do we deal with
and resolve these
agendas?
What have I omitted?
Other comments...
What’s an LA/LPA to do? I: Think about
your local growth ‘road map’
What’s an LA/LPA to do? II: Have you got
the ‘fundamentals’ for local growth right?
Doing ‘business as usual’ agendas really well
• Getting planning, delivery management, housing, infrastructure and other services right
• Excellence in business relationship management, signposting & brokerage
• Really knowing your ‘places’ – cities, town, villages/neighbourhoods – at a granular level
Focusing on a small number of transformers
• Identifying a manageable number of ‘big ticket’ changes you want to achieve – major capital investment projects or perhaps addressing a key business, skills or social issue
• Promotion, lobbying and advocacy of your place(s) consistently and distinctively
Refreshing partnership working
• Partnerships with LA neighbours; LEP-level; business and third sectors relationships
• Building the ‘right’ place-based leadership team(s)
Institutional architecture and resourcing
• Ensuring ‘whole council’ cultureis ‘fit for purpose
• Allocating distinct capital and revenue resources for growth and development, including new financing mechanisms
What’s an LA/LPA to do? III: What ‘intermediate’ tier do you
want/need, and what are your enhanced devolution/localism
ambitions for 2015-20?
• Establishing purposeful leadership and governance
• Moving beyond transactional deals to ‘pacts’
• Embracing asymmetric progression
• Enhanced localisation of EUSIF, growth deals, PSTN etc
• Strengthening collaboration between LA, business, HEI, LEPs and other role players locally
•Defining the national ‘project’/approach
•Evolving intermediate governance forms and structures – DAs, CAs etc
•Agree new ‘balance’ of funding including local revenue-raising powers
•Define what’s in and out of scope
•Sort out distinctive propositions and leadership of place
•Determine national policy priorities for local ‘shaping’
Define the preconditions for enhanced
devolution
Agree and deliver
structural and statutory
change
Developing the
instruments of change
Making the most of short
term incremental
opportunities
Review and reflections...
What has been helpful and less helpful about the session?
Is there anything that hasn’t been covered, that you wish we had addressed?
What changes or considerations will you think about exploring further with your team(s) when you return to your LA next week?
