Cornish bid for development agency successor granted

Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly have been granted a local replacement for the South West Regional Development Agency (RDA).

Business Secretary Vince Cable announced that they were successful in their bid for a Local Economic Partnership (LEP).

Regional development agencies were set up in England under the Labour government to help local businesses.

Mr Cable said the LEP would have its own agenda and not a Whitehall one.

In the bid for the LEP, Cornwall Council said the partnership would involve councils, businesses, colleges and communities working together to boost the economy, employment and the standard of living of residents.

The coalition government is scrapping the South West RDA - which covers an area stretching from Swindon in Wiltshire to Penzance - because it "didn't work", Prime Minister David Cameron said in July.