LEP hits back at enterprise zone ‘failure’ report

Lancashire Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has hit back strongly at a report which put the county’s enterprise zones at the bottom of a national league table of job creation.

The report, from research commissioned by the BBC, said that the number of jobs in Lancashire had fallen by more than 2,000 since the government announced the creation of the zones in 2011.

However the LEP said the league table was “misleading” and the report did not reflect “an accurate picture”. It says Lancashire’s four enterprise zones (EZs) will create 10,000 jobs over the coming years.