About UsEconomic partnerships are business-led organisations which bring people from the private, public and voluntary sectors together to create a shared economic development strategy for their sub-region. There are twelve Economic Partnerships in the South East.
South East Economic Partnerships (SEEP) is a network of the twelve chief executives who run the Economic Partnerships. SEEP exists to enable the partnerships to collaborate on common issues and to influence regional economic policy.
SEEP was formed in 1999 to provide a forum for Economic Partnerships to talk to each other and identify opportunities to work together.
SEEP has developed into an effective organisation which has been able to work closely with SEEDA, SEERA and GOSE on a number of economic related issues and initiatives.
The South East Economic Partnerships provide the following roles:
- Ensure a strategic dialogue between SEEDA, SEERA, GOSE and local partners on key economic issues facing the South East.
- Provide a business led economic development input to relevant policy initiatives at national, regional and local level. EP’s provide an effective engagement with business, local authorities and the voluntary sector. Senior business people are involved in every EP and each is chaired by a respected person who is, or has recently been, engaged in business.
- Provide an effective mechanism of ensuring that the objectives and activities of the Regional Economic Strategy and South East Plan are translated into local actions and bring specialist knowledge to bear on implementation.
Of key importance is that EP’s provide effective working across administrative boundaries and the ability to facilitate working with local authorities and business organisations within a particular economic area such as the Gatwick Diamond.
In addition EP’s provide input to the Local Area Agreements to ensure that the aims and objectives of the region and sub region are effectively implemented.
About UsEconomic Partnerships have played a key part in engaging with the business sector and providing strategic input to the Regional Economic Strategies from SEEDA and other regional initiatives such as the South East Plan. There are many examples of the key achievements by Economic Partnerships both individually but also across various administrative boundaries that have benefited the South East. All the Economic Partnerships have, however, a number of key attributes in common:
- EP’s have a successful record of engaging directly with business, something that other public sector organisations find difficult to achieve. Many senior level businessmen and women participate as Board members of each EP; almost without exception the Chair of each EP is a senior business person often from large companies within the area. All EP’s have regular dialogue with employer lead organisations such as the CBI and IOD at a local level.
- EP’s have a strategic focus rather than a delivery focus. This distinguishes EP’s from other partnerships that are delivery oriented.
- EP’s operate at a local level and are well able to provide local input from the business sector that has major difficulties engaging with the public sector. This is often due to the mis-understanding of various roles of public sector bodies as well as the fluctuating organisations and policies. There is a view that the public sector has real difficulty in really appreciating what matters to business.
- EP’s are able to bring together local partnerships in a way that other public sector bodies find difficult. Whilst EP’s currently operate along the county boundaries they are not restricted to administrative boundaries and can develop and participate in cross-regional initiatives.
Whilst having a strong business focus EP’s are well placed in terms of engaging with County Councils, most of whom are stake-holders in their respective EP’s.
