LOCAL Enterprise Partnerships covering York, North and East Yorkshire have been awarded funding from the Government’s £5 million start-up fund for LEPs.

The York and North Yorkshire LEP, which also covers the East Riding, was successful in its bid for £120,000, which it said would kick-start its activities.

Julie Chandler, spokeswoman for the York and North Yorkshire LEP, said the money will help it improve its communication with businesses. “It will really make a difference and enable us to take the agenda forward,” she said.

She said the money would be spent on a new website and branding, improving the way it communicates with business, technology to enable it to do more remote working and to start on delivering its priorities, which include business support and the visitor economy.

Leeds City Region LEP, which covers York and Selby, also received 69 per cent of the amount it bid for, but the authority would not disclose how much it was actually awarded.

It said the money would enable it to develop a sound knowledge of the businesses in the Leeds City Region and set a baseline of information, provide support to significant businesses within the Leeds City Region economy, improve engagement with a new web portal, providing a single point of information about diverse business networks, business support provision and investment opportunities across the city region and supporting LEP links and priorities on skills.