Business doubts over enterprise partnerships
Politicians and governments love their buzzwords. Now there's a new one to remember: LEP, short for Local Enterprise Partnerships. Catchy isn't it?
In simple terms, LEPs are about creating new jobs and bringing a touch more prosperity to somewhere near you. But as one new political buzzword appears, another is asked to quietly leave the stage.
Remember the RDAs? They were the big New Labour idea to devolve economic decision making to the English regions. Closer to home, we had EMDA - the Nottingham-based East Midlands Regional Development Agency.
Now EMDA and the other eight RDAs in England are to be scrapped by the Coalition Government in its cull of quangos.
You would naturally expect Labour politicians to be critical of the new government's decision. But the business community is not particularly happy either.
Stuart Handley is the managing director of Swiftool, a precision engineering firm at Sutton in Ashfield in Nottinghamshire. It makes components for the oil, gas and nuclear industries. Without funding from EMDA - a grant of £600,000 - his business couldn't have afforded the move into new factory premises in July.
"EMDA worked very well and our anxiety is that what replaces it won't work so well. People I have spoken to are very concerned. Its loss could have a big impact on the economy of the East Midlands," he told me. Swiftool employs 53 people and plans to double its workforce.
It's not the only local business to have benefited. EMDA claims to have helped set up 14,500 new businesses and to have created or safeguarded 90,000 jobs. But political critics of EMDA and the other Regional Development Agencies in England have never been won over.
Nicky Morgan is the new Tory MP for Loughborough in Leicestershire. She believes EMDA was never as effective as it claimed... and she's not alone.
"I know of so many small businesses in the East Midlands who would welcome help and support but never heard anything from EMDA. I also know of one large manufacturer in Loughborough who contacted EMDA and they had never heard of them," she said.
EMDA's glossy policy documents pledged to create a "flourishing region", with an ambition of driving the East Midlands into the top 20 league table of Europe's most prosperous regions. The region eventully reached the 23rd position before EMDA decided to shift the strategy goalposts.
So now we will have the Local Enterprise Partnerships, run by groups of local councils.
Five partnerships have already been planned for the East Midlands: Leicester and Leicestershire are coming together; Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby and Derbyshire, Midlands South East, taking in Northamptonshire; West Leicestershire and Northern Warwickshire, and the Peak District.
The Conservative leader of Derbyshire Dales Council Lewis Rose praises EMDA's work for rural areas, but believes the LEPs will be more effective.
"We are forming a partnership with the Peak Park Authority, the Staffordshire Moorlands - in the West Midlands - and to a certain extent the High Peak. The advantage for us is that the new body will specialise in the rural needs of the Peak," he said.
But will these new partnerships just be too small, too parochial and too strapped for cash? That's the question MPs on the House of Commons business committee will be asking over the next few weeks.
The new LEPs have a financial carrot from the Coalition... a share of £1bn for economic development. The outcome of that bidding war will be an early test of the new East Midland partnerships.
Hello. My name is John Hess. I'm the BBC's Political Editor for the East Midlands and this blog will offer my musings on the political scene from Westminster to closer to home. 
