The panel's role will be to advise the Mayor on how to attract strategic investment to support private sector growth and employment, promote enterprise, increase skill levels and protect and enhance London’s competitiveness.
The panel consists of 12 business leaders and representatives from London boroughs and is co-chaired by the Mayor and Harvey McGrath, the chairman of Prudential plc.
“The London Enterprise Panel will add value by providing a forum in which for the first time the Mayor, senior business and civic leaders can work together on critical issues affecting London’s economy and competitiveness,” said McGrath.
The panel will adopt an advisory role and will work within the framework set by the London Plan and other mayoral strategies, the Mayor said. Due to London's unique governance arrangements, the London enterprise panel's role will not be the same as local enterprise partnerships that have been established elsewhere in the country.
The London enterprise panel will operate through the Greater London Authority (GLA) because it is a mayoral-appointed body with no separate, independent or corporate legal status. The GLA may have to act as an “accountable body” if funding arrangements are entered into with the Government or European Commission on the panel’s behalf.
The new enterprise zones were announced by the Government in March 2011 and offer the potential to create a sustainable economic development and regeneration fund, the Mayor said. The zones are eligible to benefit from any uplift in business rates created, which could be used to create a fund for the Capital.
The Royal Docks has been approved as London's first enterprise zone and the Government has also announced that it will consider creating a new enterprise zone at Battersea.
The panel will meet for the first time on 21 February.
