The North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) works to make the North East a place where more businesses invest, grow and prosper, delivering more and better jobs for everyone.

The North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP) is a public, private and education sector partnership.

We are one of thirty-eight LEPs in the country and are responsible for promoting and developing economic growth in the local authority areas of County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland.

We are governed by our board which is comprised of business leaders, education providers, economic experts and local authorities. It is at the North East LEP board meetings that all of our key decisions are made.

We produce our area’s Strategic Economic Plan, which acts as a blueprint for the activities that need to take place to improve our economy.
The plan outlines medium term economic objectives for the North East and identifies interventions and investments to support economic growth, improve productivity and to increase the number of those employed, particularly in higher quality jobs. The SEP is recognised by Government as the policy document that sets the strategic direction for our economy.

The SEP has two headline targets:
• To increase the number of jobs in the North East economy by 100,000 by 2024
• To ensure that 70% of the jobs growth is in better jobs.
We aim to achieve these targets through investing in six core themes:
• Innovation
• Skills
• Business Support and Access to Finance
• Employability and Inclusion
• Transport and Connectivity
• Assets and Economic Infrastructure

To support the delivery of the economic plan we are responsible for bringing in and managing investment into the area. This includes a £270m North East Growth Deal, which support capital projects across the North East.

You can find out more about our work at www.nelep.co.uk or follow @northeastlep

The North of Tyne Combined Authority provides the accountable body arrangements for the North East Local Enterprise Partnership.