The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership is one of 38 LEPs in England. Our purpose is to lead and influence economic growth, job creation and prosperity across the Heart of the South West area covering Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay.
Comprised of business leaders from across our key sectors, the LEP Board oversees the programme of infrastructure, business support and skills projects being delivered by 2025.
Responsible for the day to day running of the LEP, the core team supports the Board in delivering the LEP strategy.
The LEP’s Plan to Build Back Better sets out the transformational opportunities in the Heart of the South West area that will unlock investment, create more and better jobs and deliver prosperity and resilience through clean and inclusive growth. The plan is rooted in the ambitious vision of our Local Industrial Strategy.
Clean and Inclusive growth are the overarching themes of the Local Industrial Strategy.
We manage a portfolio of over three-quarters of a billion pounds that we’re investing into over 80 infrastructure, business support and skills packages.
The 2014-2020 European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) Growth Programme for England brings together three funds:
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) >
Are you a Business entrepreneur or thinking of relocating your business?
Discover transformational opportunities in the Heart of the South West >
Find out why companies are coming to the Heart of the South West >
Skills Launchpad can help you find information about skills, careers, training and jobs in Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay.
If you are a local business owner seeking advice and support for your business, the Growth Hub can help.
Free at the point of access, questions can be about anything a business may want to ask.
Our Business Bulletins provide a comprehensive summary of business sentiment across the Heart of the South West, along with national and regional business intelligence.
Businesses thrive in the Heart of the South West with its excellent value, quality development sites and premises, skilled workforce and business support. Our strong private, public, education and third sector partnerships are driving the economy forward in this destination of choice.
The LEP monitors a wide range of economic indicators and commissions specific research to ensure our work reflects the latest understanding of the area’s challenges and opportunities. In this section you can access these reports and the evidence base which underpins our Build Back Better plan. Click on the links below to find out more:
Build Back Better evidence base >
Further research undertaken by our local authority partners can be accessed here:
About our area > Productivity
This report sets out a framework to support the setting of realistic macro targets and the monitoring of future micro interventions for productivity growth.
This document summarises findings from the South West Draft Productivity Strategy consultation period which ran between October-December 2017. It includes feedback from 58 individual responses to an online survey, in addition to 34 written representations and feedback gathered from two 'LEP conversations' (business events).
This document feeds into the Productivity Strategy and considers the nature and geography of the following issues: digital connectivity and resilience business infrastructure natural capital energy transmission and distribution.
This document feeds into the Productivity Strategy and provides an analysis of the Heart of the South West's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in relation to people based factors.
This document feeds into the Productivity Strategy and provides local intelligence and ideas from the LEP's Business Leadership Group around driving productivity in businesses.
This paper examines the relationship between skills and productivity and explores the performance of the Heart of the South West area across a wide range of skills-related measures including: the skills pipeline skills of the existing workforce (including employer propensity to train and the and the quality of leadership and management) attracting and retaining talent types of jobs that are likely to be in demand in the future the extent and nature of unemployment in the area demographic issues.
Through a series of case studies, this paper looks at a number of approaches adopted to boost productivity and growth in other UK and European regions.
This paper provides an understanding of the trends and drivers of economic growth compared to other LEPs. It also seeks to determine the extent to which economic growth can be attributed to rising employment levels or gains in productivity.
This paper examines the relationship between creativity and productivity. It specifically focuses on: the growth of the creative industries and the spill-over benefits for the local economy the correlation between engagement with arts and culture and health and wellbeing (and its correlation with productivity) opportunities for creative clusters the role the creative industries in driving regeneration and growth the importance of arts education to the skills agenda cross-sector links.
A summary of the responses received from 44 organisations to an online consultation on the green paper which ran between January and February 2017.
Drawing on a variety of published statistics, this report aimed to set out the productivity challenges facing the Heart of the South West, compared to other areas as well as the assets within the area. It posed a series of questions and invited feedback from partners through a consultation process.
The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership is one of 38 LEPs in England. Our purpose is to lead and influence economic growth, job creation and prosperity across the Heart of the South West area covering Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay.
Chief Executive
David Ralph started as Chief Executive of Heart of South West LEP at the beginning of June 2018. Previously, he had spent 5 years as CEO of the Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire (D2N2) LEP from 2013 where he oversaw the development of the D2N2 Strategic Economic Plan and sector strategies, 3 Growth Deals with HM Government to deliver a £1billion capital investment programme, securing and implementing £200m ESIF programme, the Derby and Nottingham Enterprise Zone, the D2N2 Skills Deal and Time for Innovation programme, community fund and led the executive team to develop the HS2 East Midlands hub. He was also closely involved in the proposed North Midlands Devolution Deal and one of the key architects in establishing the Midlands Engine, chairing the officer steering group. Whilst in this role David was a NED of the Nottingham Enterprise Zone, and Marketing NG, the Outer Estates Foundation and a Governor of Nottingham College and on the advisory Board of Nottingham Business School.
Before the East Midlands, David was CEO of the Have Gateway Partnership working closely with local stakeholders including the ports of Felixstowe, Harwich and Ipswich and BT Adadastral Park across Suffolk and Essex and prior to that was Chief Exec of the Barton Hill New Deal for Communities programme in Bristol and the Nelm Development Trust in Norwich.
David is a keen sailor, walker and trail runner.