CLAIMS by a business group that small firms are under-represented on a leading local economic body responsible for handling billions of pounds of public money have been dismissed as ‘inaccurate’.

A new report by the Federation of Small Businesses and the Centre for Local Economic Strategies called on Local Enterprise Partnerships to place small businesses at the heart of their plans for local economic growth .

West Yorkshire FSB chairman Chris Glen claimed that the Leeds City Region LEP board, which covers Bradford, had no small business representatives.

He said: “LEPs are crucial to delivering local economic growth across England.

“While some have done a good job of reaching out to the small business community, others need to up their game and the Leeds City Region LEP is one of them.

“The Leeds City Region is the only LEP for a core city without an SME on its board, and this is unacceptable. The LEP must correct this and appoint at least one designated person from an SME to sit on the board and be responsible for engaging and consulting with small businesses. It is crucial that this person should come from an SME and that they have the backing of the SME community to build trust and co-operation.

“Now is the right time to replenish some of the long-standing members of the LEP Board and ensure that the private sector representatives on the LEP Board are predominantly business owners.”

But a LEP spokesman said: “The Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership has eight private sector members on the LEP Board, not including the non-executive business chairman . Of those eight members, three are from an SME, according to the generally accepted definition, including a social enterprise.

“Another of our LEP Board members, Eric Hawthorn, managing director of (Shipley-based) Radio Design, is an entrepreneur who has grown his business from a start-up in 2007 to now over 260 employees globally and is therefore in a strong position to represent the views of ambitious SMEs.

“In addition, the LEP Board is supported by a number of expert policy panels which are responsible for delivering projects across the LEP’s broad economic agenda, in consultation with the widest possible range of private and public sector representatives.

“Out of 25 private sector panel members, 12 are from small businesses. As an example, the LEP’s Business, Innovation and Growth Panel, which is responsible for the LEP’s core business support work, has more than 80 per cent private sector representation from small business.”