Councils may be stripped of their role in the governance of local enterprise partnerships (LEP) by an ongoing 'all options on the table' Government-led review.It is understood that talks on the future accountability of LEPs have included whether local authority section 151 officers should keep their role.A report to a meeting of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull (GBS) LEP board revealed a draft review paper suggested that 'consideration needs to be given to whether LAs [local authorities] should remain involved in the governance of LEPs at all'.However, chair of the LEP Network, Mark Bretton, told The MJ: 'We very much want to build on and embrace the relationship we've got with local authorities. We don't wish to see our relationships with our local authorities severed.'The review, which is being led by business minister Paul Scully, is the second in just a few years after MPs previously found the Greater Cambridgeshire Greater Peterborough (GCGP) LEP 'failed to comply with the standards expected in public life'.
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