Welcome

The North East LEP The North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) helps drive economic growth in North East England by supporting businesses and creating more and better jobs for everyone. Over the next decade, we aim to help the North East create an extra 100,000 jobs.

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Strategic Economic Plan Our Strategic Economic Plan (SEP) underpins all our activity. We developed it for Government on behalf of the North East. It is our roadmap to success. The plan captures the strengths, weaknesses and challenges our economy faces. It highlights the areas where our investment can generate maximum return for the regional economy through new jobs and business growth.

Our key work areas Strategic Economic Policy and Analysis Innovation Business Growth Skills Enterprise Zones Funding

Strategic Economic Policy and Analysis The SEP is based on in-depth economic analysis provided by external experts in their field. It will be subject to a refresh during 2016 in order to assess progress so far and set priorities for coming years.

Smart Specialisation We have developed and are implementing a ‘smart specialisation’ strategy to enable us to prioritise resources in our strongest sectors: Subsea and offshore renewables Life Science and health care Digital and creative Personal vehicle and automotive

Innovation We are working with organisations across the North East LEP area to secure our place as one of the leading ‘innovation hotspots’ in Europe. Important initiatives include the Super Network (Venture Fest), the Innovation Observatory and the Incubator Support programme. We are also looking at cross cutting and emerging technologies like ageing, surface science, satellite applications and energy systems. Examples are the Grand Challenge in the Health sector and Data for Growth.

Business support Our Business Support Programme provides the framework for investment into small and medium-sized companies, opening up access to the finance and support they need to grow and thrive.

Skills Creating greater connections between businesses and schools: thoroughly understanding what businesses need and helping education institutions to deliver this skills base. Enterprise Adviser programme Career Benchmarks pilot Apprenticeship Growth Partnership Generation North East

Enterprise Zones Enterprise Zone 1 included 10 sites including next to the A19, the North Bank of the Tyne and development in Blyth. We have helped secure a second Enterprise Zone (EZ) from Government for the region. It is spread across ten sites and companies located could benefit from business rate discounts or enhanced capital allowances The second EZ will cover 175 hectares and aims to deliver a further 14,000 jobs and 600,000sq m of employment opportunities over the 25- year lifetime of the project. The sites will have EZ status from April 2017.

Funding The North East LEP competes nationally to bring funding into the region. £329m North East Growth Deal Local Growth Fund to support major capital projects £380m from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) £10.5m from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) £55m delivered for the North East Investment Fund £120m retained for the JEREMIE 2 Fund