Essex Local Area Agreement
Essex Local Area Agreement
Local Area Agreements (LAAs) are three year programmes that set out how local authorities and other major local delivery partners will deliver the best solutions for their areas through a reformed relationship between central and local government. There are three LAAs covering Greater Essex in the areas administered by Essex County Council and the Unitary Councils of Southend on Sea and Thurrock.
The Greater Essex Prosperity Forum was responsible for delivering the targets in the Economic Block of the first Essex LAA (2006-2009). New three year LAAs (LAA2) have been introduced from April 2008 and these will be the only place where central government will agree targets with local authorities and their partners on outcomes delivered by local government on its own and in partnership with others.
The new LAAs will mean:
• more emphasis on area based service delivery - a package of measures which mean stronger partnership working, alignment of local government performance management arrangements with that of partner agencies and replacement of authority-based inspection with an area-based assessment of risks to service delivery (The Comprehensive Area Assessment);
• more freedom in spending decisions - the local authority will be able to make decisions about spending priorities with partners locally without these being conditioned by centrally imposed targets.
• fewer central targets and reporting systems - the new LAAs are part of radical reforms to replace the multiple national performance frameworks under which local authorities operate with around 200 National Indicators. These will cover everything local government does on its own or in partnership with others.
The Greater Essex Prosperity Forum is one of the six Thematic Partnerships that will deliver the targets in the new Essex LAA2. Achieving a strong and competitive Essex economy will involve the GEPF and its partners in:
• Ensuring people have the skills for higher value-added jobs in a knowledge based economy and improve employability and the attainment of lower level skills where this is a local issue;
• A dynamic business sector with higher levels of inward investment and international trade;
• Business innovation and expansion.
This will be achieved through designated Target Leads who are responsible for reporting against National Indicators (NIs) and Local Indicators (LIs), supported by the GEPF Task & Finish Groups:
Target Lead: Matthew Fletcher, Learning and Skills Council
NI 163: Proportion of population aged 19-64 for males and 19-59 for females qualified to at least Level 2 or higher;
NI 164: Proportion of population aged 19-64 for males and 19-59 for females qualified to at least Level 3 or higher;
LI (NI 165): Proportion of population aged 19-64 for males and 19-59 for females qualified to at least Level 4 or higher.
Target Lead: Keith Hughes, Business Link East
NI 171: New Business registration rate.
Target Leads: Peter Cook/David Adlington, ExDRA
NI 166: Median earnings of employees in the area.
Target Lead: Louise Aitken, Essex County Council (interim)
LI (NI 151): Overall employment rate (working age)
Target Lead: David Adlington, ExDRA
LI 8.1: Number of jobs saved and created as a result of foreign direct investment
Target Lead: Pete Cook, ExDRA
LI 8.2: Helping companies to trade internationally
Essex LAA Economic Priority Action Planning Event 15th August 2008 (19 KB) 
Click here to go to the latest LAA draft on the Essex Partnership site.
For further information about the Essex Local Area Agreement economic targets please contact:
Lynn Ballard
Tel: 01245 702470
Email: lynn.ballard@exdra.co.uk
