Commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)
A growth hub is a local public/private sector partnership led by the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). Partners often include chambers of commerce, Federation of Small Businesses and other business bodies, universities/university business schools, private sector bodies, and national government. The growth hubs partnerships are designed to promote, co-ordinate and deliver business support within an LEP, providing a mechanism for integrating national and local business support so it is easier for businesses to access. This simplification aspect is a central purpose of the growth hubs. There is now a complete network of thirty nine growth hubs. The purpose of this project is to provide an initial evaluation of the growth hubs by 1) reviewing the Annual Report and other documents produced by each hub 2) classifying the hubs into five types based on their delivery model, as well as other factors 3) conducting interviews to further clarify and assess the nature of the delivery model and its impact 4) Assessing each growth hub’s progress in terms of simplifying business support.