This page contains information about the Combined Authority’s new Business and Enterprise Board and how local business leaders can get involved to help shape the economic future of the Liverpool City Region.
Foreword from Metro Mayor
Good business is the engine of any modern, successful 21st century economy. It supports livelihoods, cultivates creativity, enhances local communities and empowers people to fulfil their potential.
Putting those values into practice, I have worked alongside local businesses, workers and trade unions to develop a Fair Employment Charter to uphold the highest employment standards across the region.
Because for investment to mean anything, local people and communities have to feel its benefits. That means creating well paid, highly skilled jobs, apprenticeships and training opportunities, and helping to transform communities that have been left behind.
As Mayor, I am making sure that we are putting our money where our mouth is to help our people and businesses to thrive.
We are putting the infrastructure in place to provide the fastest internet speeds in the country through LCR Connect, a joint venture that is half publicly-owned, while our position as the UK’s Renewable Energy Coast ensures that clean, predictable energy is in bountiful supply.
We are already a global leader in fields ranging from advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence through to renewable energy and infection control.
Working in partnership with our outstanding local universities, I want to establish our area as an innovation powerhouse. In fact, I plan to invest 5% of the region’s GVA in R&D over the coming years, almost double the UK Government’s national targets.
We have developed a £3bn pipeline of projects that could generate £41.7bn for our economy and create 44,000 jobs in key industries of the future – positioning our area at the forefront of UK science and innovation.
Looking to the future, I want to take advantage of our strengths – and potential – and turn them into profitable businesses, creating better, greener jobs and bringing greater prosperity to local people.
The Liverpool City Region Business and Enterprise Board is an opportunity for business leaders from across our area to work with me, to make sure their voice is heard and to help identify the opportunities that lie ahead for our economy.
Ours is a region on the rise. Working together, I want to build a vibrant and inclusive Liverpool City Region for the 1.6m people who live and work in our area – where no one is left behind.
Steve Rotheram
Mayor of the Liverpool City Region
Background
At its meeting on 28 April, the Combined Authority approved plans to integrate the work of the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), which provides a voice for the city region’s business community, into the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
This means that a new Business and Enterprise Board will be created within the Combined Authority to take over the role of providing a voice for business in the Liverpool City Region.
Bringing the business voice directly into the Combined Authority’s policy-making processes will enable the Combined Authority to work more closely and directly with businesses, especially those in industry clusters that will be of critical importance to the future success of the city region economy.
Following a national review of the work of Local Enterprise Partnerships, the Combined Authority was required by Government to integrate the functions of the LEP into its own governance structure.
Since the creation of the Combined Authority, several LEP-related functions, such as setting local economic priorities and leading on economic growth and job creation, have already moved across to the Combined Authority.
How the Board will work
The new Business and Enterprise Board will be set up within the Combined Authority as one of the main means of engaging with the local business community.
This Board will ensure representation from priority industry sectors in the city region as well as wider business representation. Its purpose will be to articulate business views about the main economic opportunities and challenges facing the city region so they can be reflected in policy priorities.
The Business and Enterprise Board will be the primary strategic link between business and the Combined Authority – and its representative will become a non-voting member of the Combined Authority. Representation on the Board will be ensured for key industry Cluster Chairs, Higher and Further Education, Social Economy, and the Liverpool Visitor Economy Partnership. Further representation will be sought from other significant business sectors, such as Port and Maritime Logistics, Professional and Business Services, Third Sector and Built Environment.
Three new Cluster Boards will be set up covering advanced manufacturing, health and life sciences and the digital and creative industries, in recognition of key strengths and growth opportunities for the LCR economy as evidenced in the city region’s Plan for Prosperity. Cluster Boards will be able to set up task groups to address issues affecting the performance and competitiveness of the sector and wider LCR economy. These boards will be recruited in a separate process. Look out for more information soon.
Cluster Boards
The Business and Enterprise Board and Cluster Boards will typically be composed of 14 members broadly representing the LCR geography but with the flexibility to co-opt members to plug gaps in areas of expertise, local geography or to ensure greater diversity. In all cases, the Combined Authority will endeavour to ensure that the new boards reflect the communities that the Combined Authority represents across the City Region, including a commitment to achieve gender balance (50% of seats on boards will be for women) on all boards.
Representation
About the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
Find out more about the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority by following the links below.
How to apply
Individuals seeking appointment to the Business and Enterprise Board are invited to send applications to [email protected]. Applications for Chair must be submitted by 12pm on Monday 5 June 2023. Board Member applications to be submitted by 12pm on Monday 26 June 2023.
Applications should take the form of:
- Completed application form including:
a. Applicant details
b. CV
c. Covering Letter setting out how you fit the following requirements for Board members:
i. A recognised leader within their business and has previously undertaken leadership activities relevant to their sector
ii. Holds a commitment to LCR and the success of their sector
iii. Has established existing LCR business networks relevant to their sector
iv. Has a detailed knowledge and / or significant experience of their sector
v. Is able to provide a strategic view of the role of the sector within the economy
d. Equalities Monitoring Form
If you would like to have an informal conversation about either role, this can be arranged by contacting Caroline Arnold on [email protected].
Interviews for Chair will take place on Tuesday 27th June 2023.
Interviews for Board Members will take place on Wednesday 26th July and Thursday 27th July 2023.
Important documents
Application form
Person Specification
Fair Processing Notice
Terms of Reference
This information can be provided in alternative formats on request.
Appointment Process
The purpose of the Board is to effectively represent the business voice of the City Region and so it is important that the Board is representative of the region’s communities to perform this function effectively. The CA will endeavour to ensure that the Board reflects the communities that we represent across the City Region, including a commitment to achieve gender balance (50% of seats on Boards will be for women) on all Boards. Therefore, demographic data will be considered when allocating seats on the Board.
Applications will be assessed against the requirements for the role detailed above and candidates that meet all the requirements will be invited to an interview.
The purpose of the interview is to verify the information provided in the individual’s application, explore motivations for the role and what the individual can offer to the Board. Interviews will be assessed as pass / fail to produce a pool of appointable applicants.
The appointment panel will review the pool of appointable applicants and will make its selection of Board members based on a combination of their individual merits and the need to ensure diverse representation of different sectors, geographical locations, demographics and communities on the Board.
The appointment panel will firstly select a Chair based on the specific requirements for this position. Following this, applicants will be selected for the remaining based on the following requirements:
- 50% of the seats on the Board will be allocated to women.
- Diversity on the Board in relation to business sectors, geography, demographics and communities will be prioritised to ensure that the business voice is representative of interests throughout the Liverpool City Region. Given that all candidates who reach this stage of the process will be considered appointable, achieving a representative mix on the Board will be the key determinative factor in the selection of Board members.
- Where two or more appointable candidates are considered to offer similar value in terms of achieving a diverse representation, then selection decisions will be made on the individual merits of the two candidates based on the “requirements for Board members” set out at 1(c) above.
