Lead Organisation
Sustainability West Midlands Project Manager: Anna Bright (Chief Executive)Overview
The Department for Business, Energy and Industry Strategy (BEIS) has provided all 38 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in England with funding to develop an energy strategy for their area. The aim of this is to help activities related to low carbon energy be pushed higher up the agenda whilst supporting LEP aims around economic growth. Stoke & Staffordshire LEP commissioned one of our members, Encraft, to write the strategy for the area and SWM worked in partnership with them to run two stakeholder workshops. These provided the opportunity for local experts to contribute to the strategy and to set their vision in terms of what the LEP needs to do to ensure that actions outlined in the strategy can turn into reality in the form of projects on the ground.Aims of the workshops
- Learn more about the Stoke & Staffordshire LEP energy strategy, including its context, vision and progress.
- Contribute and feed ideas into what the LEP can achieve and what its area of focus should be against each energy priority.
- Network with colleagues and ask questions about the strategy when required
Results and achievements
- Generated scores of ideas reflecting practitioner viewpoints on how the LEP should embrace the energy agenda once the strategy is completed.
- Helped the LEP to focus its future energy activity based on Encraft’s priorities of energy efficiency, fuel poverty, electric transport, heat networks, renewables and other areas.
- Provided the LEP with a repository of local organisations that are both experts on the energy agenda and passionate about a low carbon energy future.
- Built on and shared knowledge of existing leading practice, such as the SEND project at Keele University and the heat network scheme in Stoke.
- Focused the vision to make Stoke & Staffordshire LEP one of the leading locations in England that invests and embraces low carbon energy.
“SWM demonstrated that they were able to bring together a strong and relevant mix of organisations and individuals from the local area who could positively contribute to our low carbon energy ambitions. The workshops were well organised and facilitated and I was pleased to see such a good attendance and contribution from all participants. The ideas generated will provide us with a platform to maintain momentum on this agenda upon completion of the energy strategy.” – Peter Davenport, Stoke & Staffordshire LEP Manager.
