THE Government should increase funding for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) outside the prosperous South East to help them fashion an economic recovery to match their own regional strengths.

That is the view of a Work Foundation report today, ahead of publication tomorrow of the Government’s research and innovation strategy.

Lizzie Crowley, author of Streets Ahead: What Makes a City Innovative?, believes the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement did not go far enough and that investment in Enterprise Zones is out-dated.

She urges the Government to give further funding to LEPs so that cities like Liverpool can grow and replicate the nearby success of the hi-tech innovation area of Warrington/Wigan.

She warns that cities outside London and the South East could be left behind in an economic recovery unless the Government adopts a less centralised growth and innovation policy.

She said: “We know that high-performing, competitive cities, such as London and cities in the South East like Guildford and Cambridge, are more successful because their economies have established strong networks between the public and private sector – what we call an ‘innovation ecosystem’.