A ROW has broken out over the economic future of Oxfordshire.

County council chairman Keith Mitchell is backing a move for the county to have its own Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) under new Government plans to replace the South East Economic Development Agency (SEEDA).

And he claims the existing Oxfordshire Economic Partnership (OEP), partly funded by SEEDA, is not suitable for the job.

But OEP chief executive David Doughty claims all that is needed is a name change for his organisation to continue working.

Mr Mitchell said: “The OEP would not be suitable as the new partnership. It has failed to gain the confidence and engagement of key employers in prosperous companies.”

But Mr Doughty said: “We have a database of more than 3,500 Oxfordshire businesses that we have engaged with over the last two years — either they have come to one of our events or they have met us at one of the business events that we have attended or we have been in correspondence over a business issue.

“Creating an OEP could be as simple as changing the word ‘economic’ to ‘enterprise’ since OEP already has the structure, strategic economic agenda and engagement with local businesses that is required for a successful LEP.”

Mr Mitchell said there had been a meeting of representatives from 100 of Oxfordshire’s top companies which had resulted in a bid before the end of August for Oxfordshire to have its own LEP.