Government requires all LEPs to publish Annual Delivery Plans to inform an objective assessment on how Local Enterprise Partnerships are performing both nationally and locally.

Hertfordshire LEP's Annual Delivery Plan 2021/22 sets out our revised priorities for the year ahead and the outputs and deliverables we expect to achieve, with a focus on economic recovery, the impact COVID-19 has had on our delivery, and our internal governance and resourcing.

Mark Bretton, Chair of Hertfordshire LEP says: "The past year has been one of the toughest on record for our businesses, residents and public sector partners. LEPs responded to this challenge by ramping up their business support via enhanced Growth Hub services and a sustained impact on skills development, targeting those who stood to be most impacted by the pandemic.

"The LEP’s Executive Team adapted swiftly to the ‘new normal’, enabling us to continue to deliver on our priorities, supported by our Board and sub-Board members who invested their time, energy and expertise in helping to lead Hertfordshire’s economic recovery.

"While the Budget and its associated papers brought few surprises, it has provided us with an opportunity to review our future ways of working and build on our success. The political landscape has fundamentally shifted and this is influencing how capital funds will be allocated post Local Growth Fund and Getting Building Fund, with the new Levelling Up and associated funds being channelled via Local Authorities.

"A review of LEPs is now underway, with Hertfordshire playing a leading role in shaping our future. Ministers have now approved the Terms of Reference for the LEP Review. The aim will be to come to a detailed resolution by the summer, to inform advice to Ministers and the Spending Review, on how to evolve LEPs to best support and represent businesses in places.

"The role LEPs play in presenting a business voice for capital programmes is respected as is our role in skills, Growth Hubs, business support etc. During this review we must continue to deliver our programmes and projects well, and work within the wider growth proposition for Hertfordshire and more widely via Catalyst South, a strategic alliance of six southern Local Enterprises with a focus on championing an economic and business voice to stimulate growth and recovery.

"Against this backdrop and the changing socioeconomic climate, this Annual Delivery Plan will be reviewed and updated later in the autumn. I have every confidence that the governance, delivery and strategy capabilities built up over the past 10 years provides us with firm foundations on which to build on and help lead Hertfordshire’s economic recovery with our greater emphasis on low carbon, digital, skills development, tailored business support models and diversity and inclusion to ensure no person or place is left behind."

Read Hertfordshire LEP's  Annual Delivery Plan 2021/22.