Business secretary Vince Cable and communities secretary Eric Pickles have announced the first wave of local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) which will replace nine regional development agencies, abolished in May.

The ministers received 62 proposals for the partnerships in September; 24 LEPs have been approved. They will take on roles such as setting key investment priorities for an area and bidding for growth funding from the newly opened £1.4bn regional growth fund.

A ministerial group chaired by deputy prime minister Nick Clegg will make decisions on how this money is allocated, supported by a panel chaired by Lord Heseltine, which will provide "an independent strategic view to ministers”.

The LEPs were announced in a regional growth white paper, published by the departments yesterday. The white paper also set out proposals to allow businesses to keep business rates.

It set out three key aims for the departments: shifting power to local communities and businesses through LEPs, increasing confidence to invest through a “consistent and efficient framework for investment, an effective planning framework and new incentives to make sure local communities benefit from development”; and encouraging focused investment  by tackling barriers to growth that the market will not address itself, and supporting investment with long-term impact on growth.

Shadow business secretary John Denham said the LEPs were just a “pathetic fig leaf to cover the absence of any growth strategy”, and the approval process had been marked by “petty battles” between Cable and Pickles.

A chief executive in a chamber of commerce that failed to get its LEP proposal approved told the Financial Times:  “[Cable and Pickles] were not talking to each other and it meant there were two different sets of messages, with [the] business [department] encouraging joined-up bids and [the] communities [department] letting local authorities go it alone."

Written by CSW