Study title

51 interviews were conducted with Board members of Local Enterprise Partnerships and related stakeholders in 8 LEPs in England about their views about the role of LEPS, and policies on productivity, inclusivity and sustainability. They were asked about what devolution to regions might look like, some of the barriers to devolution and three potential barriers: accountability, skills policy, and the resources needed to run effective policy. Note: because the respondents would be easily identified from the transcripts, only the topic guide and the consent form have been deposited. No interview data is available.The aim of the project is to identify institutional and organisational arrangements at the regional level that tend to lead to the 'good' management of policy trade-offs associated with increasing productivity, and to make recommendations based on this. These trade-offs are between productivity growth, inclusivity and sustainability. They arise because authorities have limited resources and have to prioritise: policies to maximise productivity may not maximise inclusivity or sustainability, policies to maximise inclusivity may not maximise sustainability and so on. Trade-off management is 'good' when it reduces the need for compromise between the three objectives, or to the extent that compromise is necessary, when it helps regional policy makers achieve their priorities. Recommendations will cover: 1. Changes to the way national and regional policy makers operate within the current system of institutions and organisations 2. Modest changes to that system that policy makers responsible for the design of the system are likely to accept, and 3. More radical changes to that system that could be adopted in the future. If policy makers act on these recommendations this will lead to strengthened institutions and thus to improved regional and local productivities. Ultimately this should lead to an improvement in the UK's productivity record. To achieve...