BUSINESSES in Suffolk were today urged to throw their weight behind the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership.

David Frost, formerly director general of British Chambers of Commerce and now chairman of the LEP Network, the national body for the Government’s LEP initiative, said that, in New Anglia, Suffolk and Norfolk had a “Premier League” LEP.

Speaking at a joint lunch event held by Suffolk Chamber of Commerce and the Heritage Coast Market Towns Initiative at the Thorpeness Country Club, Mr Frost said that LEPs had been launched less than three years ago as local private-public sector partnerships.

However, with their enhanced role as a result of last year’s No Stone Unturned report by Michael Heseltine, LEPs had now become “the only show in town” in terms of enabling growth. He told guests: “My message to you is to work with the LEP, and with the Chamber, as influencers because the future of this area will be very much determined by the actions of the New Anglia LEP board.”

Speakers at yesterday’s event also included Andy Wood, chairman of New Anglia LEP, and Michelle Wooton from the Basepoint Business Centre in Ipswich which sponsored the lunch.