Enterprise Pathways Blog Autumn 2010: What Will the Gtr Cambs/Peterborough LEP do for niche markets?

It’s October 20th 2010. Can bated breaths now be exhaled? Will the keenly awaited Government Spending Review hold promise or exclusion for Cambridgeshire’s legion of micro-businesses in the 3rd sector?

Yesterday’s nation of shopkeepers is today a plethora of technology driven service industries, yet the 3rd sector traditionally playing the midwife role delivering social & health care to all our communities, is now held to be the lynchpin in shaping the new world - by creating successful partnerships with the private sector and newly reborn development gurus to secure the synergies and resources needed to meet the new localism agenda.

Will the new Gtr Cambridgeshire & Gtr Peterborough LEP take the lead in this brave new world to broker partnerships between government bodies, private enterprise and social entrepreneurs to kickstart new energies and economies?

Social Enterprise East of England advise me they were working hard over the summer to make sure that LEPs thought about social enterprise in their submissions, and that Cambs & P’boro were very aware of SE, so there is a place for SE on the LEP Board which is a huge step forward but we can’t assume that every LEP will get public funding – there is a possibility that some will not be allocated any at all, though they are more likely to be in the east and south east. It is really a question of wait and see at the moment. Check our the bid here.

- Christine Stocker Gibson