All ministers in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy have been tasked with building relationships with a number of local enterprise partnerships in England, as well as with the devolved nations.
The department’s ministers – Nick Hurd, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, Jo Johnson, Margot James and Jesse Norman – will be the first point of contact for respective LEPs in England within the department.
Clark, who was named business and energy secretary in the government reshuffle in July, said that he was giving ministers geographic areas of responsibility so they can build on existing relationships to better connect policy with business and industry.
Government has helped transform the business landscape by putting power back into the hands of local communities and businesses to drive economic growth through the creation of local enterprise partnerships, he said.
“This is part of our plan to build an economy that works for all,” he added.
“An effective industrial strategy has to recognise and take advantage of the differences and unique strengths that exist across the country, and I will be encouraging all my ministers to get out there and meet the people who know their area best.”
The full list of ministerial allocations to LEPs is:
Nick Hurd
Leeds City Region
Humber
York and North Yorkshire
Sheffield City Region
D2N2 (Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire)
Greater Lincolnshire
Leicester and Leicestershire
London
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Cumbria
Lancashire
Swindon and Wiltshire
Dorset
Buckinghamshire Thames Valley
Thames Valley Berkshire
Northamptonshire
South East Midlands
Hertfordshire
Jo Johnson
Greater Cambridge and Greater Peterborough
New Anglia
South East
Coast to Capital (area from South London to the coast of Brighton)
Greater Manchester
Solent
Enterprise M3 (M3 Corridor)
Cheshire and Warrington
Margot James
Greater Birmingham and Solihull
Black Country
Coventry and Warwickshire
Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire
Worcestershire
Gloucestershire
Liverpool City Region
Jesse Norman
Tees Valley
North Eastern
The Marches
Oxfordshire
West of England
Heart of the South West
Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
Devolved Nations
Northern Ireland – Jesse Norman
Scotland – Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Wales – Nick Hurd
