Context

The Business Board Network (BBN) is a not-for-profit organisation set up to support local growth, galvanise economic investment, and co-ordinate, facilitate and represent the emerging and established Business Boards as part of the government’s devolution programme. It is unique in that it is the only organisation that represents the Business Boards as a single independent business voice to partners, stakeholders, and government – and in turn acts as a single point of contact for government and stakeholders to easily communicate and engage with those local business leaders.

The BBN was set up in response to the government’s policy change to establish Business Boards and to consolidate the role of the local independent business voice following LEP integration, this was supported and encouraged by government. The following paragraph is taken from a letter sent by MHCLG to MCA/Upper Tier CEOs on 2nd April 2024:

“The Business Board (previously LEP) Network will receive a funding allocation of £150,000 for 2024-25. The government supports the principle of maintaining a network that continues to represent the local business voice to help strengthen the aims of devolution and economic growth – and to that end we hope you will support the evolving Business Board Network.”

This is the basis upon which the BBN has had a licence to operate from Whitehall. It is also evident that the work of creating and integrating Business Boards is still ongoing and, as explained below, the importance and impact of a continuing BBN is vital to this process and the government’s clearly stated agenda for economic growth. In short, Business Boards across the MCAs and Upper Tiers are keen to continue to work together under the BBN and connect through it.

And as the County Council Network made clear in their Report:

“Without a centralised body overseeing regional development, a role the LEP Network has previously supported, there is a risk of losing strategic economic oversight, disjointed strategies and inward investment strategies that compete for similar sources of investment potentially harming overall UK inflows.

“The LEP Network has advocated and championed the value of the LEPs in driving local economic growth across the country, negotiating on behalf of the LEPs and acting as a central source for information and data on LEPs at national level. It was noted that the LEP Network had added real value to the LEPs and therefore continuing a network to support transition and longer term would be beneficial.” (July 2023, ‘Transition of LEP functions to CCN members: principles for success’)

Responding to the government's specific question: If funding is ceased for the Business Board Network, how will this impact the activities that you currently undertake?

In simple terms, as a not-for-profit organisation without access to commercial financing, ceasing funding for the BBN is likely to terminate its function and it would close. Breaking that down, the BBN has relied on central core funding from MHLCG, supplemented by member contributions from the Business Boards up to the announcement in the Autumn Budget. The receipt of HMG funding to this point has sent a clear signal to business, MCAs and Upper Tier authorities that:

• Government values the role of local business in stimulating local growth and investment, something reiterated regularly by the PM, Chancellor, and Secretaries of State.
• Government engages local business and buy in – it’s a huge stimulus for business engagement (e.g. over 50 colleagues on the recent call with Alex Norris MP).
• Government values the role of the BBN in supporting Business Boards, providing intel, connecting colleagues across administrative boundaries, sharing best practice etc.
• Government has an instant bell weather/touch point for national business issues and a one stop channel for communication to/from a single independent business voice.

The absence of central funding would send a clear signal to Business Board members (and more widely) that HMG does not value their input or want to engage with them and consequently business leaders may decide to withdraw their support.

Without central funding, BBN cannot support the private sector and Business Boards in their capacity to drive regional growth – as Business Boards do not have access to their own ringfenced funding. Business Boards are reliant on their constituent authorities agreeing to release funding, which will not be straight forward in some areas. Supporting the BBN again shows to all that the government values private sector engagement in enabling regional economic growth.

It is also important to recognise the current timescales we are operating under. We are still in a transition period establishing the former LEP functions into local authorities and MCAs where this is happening, half of the country are not currently on a devolution pathway, and the Business Board Network is ensuring colleagues remain connected and information is shared consistently across all regions. Even where areas have chosen a devolution pathway, it will take time to get there, some estimating as far out as 28/29 – hence regional and national structures will continue to be needed to help support and facilitate members and ensure consistency. The Business Board Network is keen to continue to support government in this work and to help produce best practice guidelines for Business Boards, drawing on learning and experience from across the country, as agreed recently with the Local Growth Minister.

It was also clear from our discussions with the Local Growth Minister that he particularly values the role local business leaders are playing and continue to play through the BBN and verbally supported and expressed his continued desire to engage directly with Business Board leaders through the BBN as the independent voice of business; indeed we agreed to plan future dates with his office.

The Network Board of the BBN met in November to discuss the impact of the Budget announcement - in principle the Chairs, who are business leaders representing the regions across England, felt:

• A strong desire to see the Network continue to support the mature and newly emerging Business Boards, many of which are only just finding their feet.
• A wish to see it continue to support and connect business leaders across geographies and connect them in areas of mutual interest, skills, housing, innovation, net zero etc.
• It important to maintain a channel for the independent voice of local business to communicate directly with government that is of clear value, giving Business Boards and local business leaders engagement outside of the usual political forums.
• The Network presented the government with a one stop shop for communications with business leaders and local stakeholders across the country at scale.

So, the impact of the BBN as a whole is bigger than the sum of its parts; it has an exponential affect which would simply be a needless loss to government if funding ceased and would mean none of the BBN’s core functions would be delivered – including:

1. Network and Collaboration: bringing regional business leaders and economic officers together across geographies to support and connect emerging Local Growth Plans, share devolution approaches and support the National Industrial Strategy, Trade Strategy, and skills strategy. Building strategic alliances, connecting key industry sectors, place clusters, piloting projects and sharing best practice as local plans take shape. Superclusters like the Oxford Cambridge Growth Corridor are good example.
2. Driving Local Growth Plans: the only platform connecting Chairs/officers across key sectors e.g. education and skills; agri-food, tech and rural economy; AI and innovation; energy and net zero; international trade; advanced manufacturing, town and city regeneration – science innovation and technology; startups and scale ups; and cultural and creative industries, enabling common support and approaches to develop.
3. Implementing Industrial Strategy: at local level, exploiting the above sectors but also with a particular focus on local investment strengths and building specialist clusters such as space tech, autonomous vehicles, gene therapy etc.
4. Engaging on policy: speaking directly with Ministers, Whitehall and Westminster as trusted partners – pushing common themes and concerns, presenting the case for policy adaptions/change and ensuring the voice of local business is heard outside of political
5. Strategic Support: Providing guidance and commentary on emerging government policies and structures, identifying opportunities for Business Boards to play a role.
6. Sourcing and utilising stats and data sources: built up over the past decade - unique local business data on place specific issues and sharing across geographies. This is data that local businesses recognise and value.
7. Engagement: Ensuring colleagues leading regional economic growth are connected, learn from each other, are kept well briefed on learning and experience, seek opportunities to collaborate and deliver efficiencies, as well as identifying best practice and drawing that to the attention of both government and network members.

The impact of ceasing funding to the BBN is probably underlined by what the Prime Minister said at his first Liaison Committee in December, when asked HOW he was going to deliver growth – and amid reform to planning and regulation – he stated “we need to make sure we have local growth plans... but growth has to be across the country, not just in some parts of the country.” That’s what BBN does – stimulating and supporting growth and investment across all parts of the country, especially those where there is no combined authority/devo pathway, and that’s about half of the national economy at the moment.

If we are going to achieve growth across all of the country, we need two fundamental elements in place:

1. Local Business Board leaders via the Business Board Network must have clear roles/remits connecting and engaging on a meaningful level, you can’t risk marginalising them, particularly in areas where there is no clear devo path or where political tussles can be a hinderance to growth. It needs clear support from government – otherwise, private sector will walk away – they are busy people and want to focus their efforts on real impact in their local economies.
2. To achieve growth across ALL of the country you need the private sector leaders on those boards to do much of the heavy lifting, bringing their experience and networks, if we are to get growth in all areas. They also bring the rigour of business case assessment, robust execution and ensuring that the commitments made when business cases were signed off are delivered. Local business needs to know this role is recognised and valued and Ministers recognise the asset at hand. You said local growth would only be delivered if the private sector was front and centre – Business Boards are here to do that. 

The consultation page is available here.