Economy: Growth

Lord Barnett Excerpts

Thursday 9th December 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox]

The formation of 24 local enterprise partnerships is a landmark move that will see business and civic leaders work together to create the conditions for growth in their communities. This is, as we know, a real power shift away from central government and quangos towards local communities and the businesses that really understand the local barriers to growth. We have 24 partnerships already and we are working very hard to ensure that the others will come online as quickly as possible. We are quite confident that this will take things forward in a way that the RDAs never did.

[Lord Barnett]

My Lords, does the noble Baroness know why the Chancellor withdrew his proposed White Paper on the Government’s policy on growth?

[Baroness Wilcox]

The Secretary of State in July spoke of developing our strategy in the autumn with a view to publishing a White Paper—or a paper. As we know, the status of a paper is determined by its content. The proposals in the paper did not require legislation. Therefore it was not a White Paper.