Edinburgh Napier University

  When considering the title of this section - ‘moving forward’, it is necessary to look at the wider context of the changing environment within which we currently operate and within which a Scottish Parliament will need to operate. Later speakers in this session will no doubt talk in more detail about local authorities, LECs and their relationships with other bodies. This paper cannot seek to cover the full range of issues in 20 minutes, it therefore only seeks to explore a few of these.
To set the scene, Economic Development is big business in Scotland. In 1994/95 SE spent £90 per man, woman and child (£438m net expenditure). To this can be added HIE and LA expenditure. Based on my research for COSLA a few years back LAs spend at least £20 per head (£90m), and probably more on directly attributable economic development activities. That’s roughly £500 per year for a family of four. True, much of this expenditure would be made anyway, for instance those on training schemes would often be paid social security if they were not on training allowances. But still these are large amounts and we must ask are they being used as effectively as possible or would they be better spent elsewhere? With short- and long-term pressures upon public finances it is essential that this money brings significant returns to society.
In this paper I want to consider broad context of some of the changes in the world economy and the growing importance of regions. Then I want to consider a few issues concerning the nature of LED organisations. Then I will try to bring some of these issues together, although recognising that in 20 minutes many key issues can only be glossed over or may be omitted.