Succeeding as a place, succeeding as a country

The Buckinghamshire Growth Board will be responsible for the governance and delivery of this Recovery and Growth Deal. It is a partnership board between the Council, Buckinghamshire LEP, Buckinghamshire Business First, Buckinghamshire CCG and Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and Business Specialists, as well as the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Homes England, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Department of Health and Social Care, Highways England and Natural England. The Board is one of four specific Growth Boards established across the South East region.

The recent creation of a single unitary council for Buckinghamshire strengthens the county’s economic and public service governance system. We now have one LEP, one Council, one CCG, one Healthcare Trust, and one business support organisation (Buckinghamshire Business First), one Further Education group, the Buckinghamshire College Group, and two universities, Buckinghamshire New University and the University of Buckingham. All are coterminous and are part of a system that has an established culture and practice of partnership working.

The Buckinghamshire Growth Board is still relatively new, but it is developing into a body that can provide effective place leadership on recovery and public service reform. It has already developed an ambitious pipeline of growth projects, which were set out in

its recent submission to the Government’s Spending Review. The proposals in this deal proposition have been developed by the Board and its partners over the summer, demonstrating the commitment that all partners have to a deal that can give Buckinghamshire the tools to accelerate recovery.

This Board will be our single voice for place-based governance, able to enter into agreement with Government, and to then oversee delivery with and through its partners. We may expand its membership over time to reflect all key delivery partners, which may include putting in place framework delivery deals for all our delivery partners.

It will be supported by a dedicated Secretariat, with Buckinghamshire Council acting as the accountable body.