The County Durham Economic Partnership (CDEP) was established in 1994 with the aim of promoting the economic well being of the County. Since 1994, we has continued to bring together all relevant stakeholders within the County in order to work together to 'secure the economic well-being of the County'.
Since the Partnership was established our role and functions have greatly increased. The Partnership is now recognised as the Sub Regional Partnership by the Regional Development Agency One NorthEast (ONE) and has responsibility for devolved Single Programme funding.
It is also one of the lead Partnerships in the County Durham Partnership (CDP). The CDP aims to achieve the long-term vision of creating a 'Dynamic Durham' by 2023 and has 12 challenges to meet in order to do this. We lead on 3 of the challenges which directly relate to the economy but also contribute to the others.
We recently grasped the opportunity to change our purpose, role, governance framework, membership, ways of working and workplans. The purpose of the Partnership is
"• to contribute to the economic well being of County Durham by leading, developing and delivering the County Durham Economic Strategy (CDES) in partnership with others."
To achieve this purpose, the Partnership will carry out the following roles and functions:
- Leading the development of the CDES through partnership in the context of the Integrated Regional Strategy and other regional strategies, the overall vision and strategy for County Durham and a shared understanding of the County's economy based on particpation in the County Durham Economic Assessment.
- Delivering Local Area Agreement Sustainable Community Strategy Objectives and Targets as part of the CDES in partnership working through lead partners.
- Promoting Partnership working with all partners including the private sector
- Representing County Durham on economic issues on in discussion with regional and sub regional agencies and partnerships
- Overseeing strategic investment priorities and providing advice to budget holders.
