THE CHAIRMAN of Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has appealed to local businesses to work together to regenerate the region.

At an event held by the Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce at York St John Business School, Neil McLean highlighted the importance of private business in regenerating the region in the future.

He said LEPs are not being funded to any material extent, unlike Yorkshire Forward’s £300 million funding, which means that although the LEP is a successor to the regional development agency in terms of trying to generate activity, it was not a successor in terms of having money to distribute.

“In some ways, that may help the mindset to change. If we were given £50 or £100 million, people would have thought of us in the same way as Yorkshire Forward and the fact we don’t have direct funding means we have got to drive the message home that this is going to be very difficult.”

He said the private sector has to work together to effect change itself, with only opportunities for small amounts of seedcorn funding from Government.

“The private sector will have to be more realistic as to what it needs to do. The Government isn’t going to be able to fund and deliver everything we would like them to fund and deliver.

“The LEP board doesn’t have the information that the region has. We need to hear what people think is achievable. We need their commitment and we need their support because there’s a massive amount to be done,” he said.