The West Yorkshire Combined Authority enables businesses in Leeds City Region to grow, creating jobs for local people, encouraging businesses to locate here and helping our economy to thrive, in partnership with the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP).
The Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) support local small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to find the funding and expertise they need to grow and expand, either from the LEP or its network of partners.
We also attract new investment and jobs by helping companies looking to take advantage of the enormous investment opportunities in our region to locate here.
Business growth is a key component of the Strategic Economic Framework that the Combined Authority and LEP are working on to deliver a strong, vibrant economy in the Leeds City Region area.
Connecting Innovation is our independent and specialist innovation support programme that coordinates, simplifies, promotes and communicates what innovation support is available to small-medium enterprises in the Leeds City Region.
In partnership with the LEP, we have invested £2.9 million of Leeds City Region Growth Deal funding into the Huddersfield Incubation & Innovation Programme at the University of Huddersfield.
£3 million of Leeds City Region Growth Deal funding is being invested into the NEXUS innovation centre at the University of Leeds to help expand business innovation and ‘incubation’ space in the city.
One of the first major business conferences to return to the Yorkshire region will be held at Elland Road on 23 September. The Go Digital Live conference will showcase how to make the best use of digital technology to get new customers and is a key event taking place during the Leeds Digital Festival.
Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (the LEP) has partnered with Enterprise Nation to launch Business Connect, a new support hub to help unlock the potential of the region’s small businesses.
New investment in the creative sector set to drive opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses.
Expanding into international markets can help businesses of all sizes to reach new customers, generate additional revenue and mitigate market risks. According to Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (the LEP) research, businesses in West Yorkshire export around £6 billion of goods to over 100 markets worldwide, with approximately 57 per cent going to EU markets.
We are inviting business leaders to help shape our vision for action on productivity and resilience in the Leeds City Region.
Leeds University and the LEP have delivered a programme of peer networks and coaching to support 60 small businesses as part of a recent initiative funded by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).