McQuaid, Ronald W (1994) Local enterprise companies and economic development - some issues in rural Scotland. In: Social Science Working Paper No.12. Department of Economics, Edinburgh Napier University.

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Abstract/Description

Local Enterprise Companies (LECs) are the main central government-funded business development agencies which provide support for businesses and training programmes for individuals in the rural areas of Scotland. This paper provides a general overview of LECs and considers their main types of activity. In the remote, thinly populated north and extreme west of Scotland, LECs operate under contract to the quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation (or quango) called Highlands and Islands Enterprise, as is discussed by McCleery in another chapter of this book. The remainder of Scotland, the Lowlands, covering over 90% of the Scottish population is the focus of this paper. The network of LECs covering the Lowlands operates under the umbrella of the Scottish Enterprise quango. After briefly setting the broad context within which LECs operate, the paper considers the characteristics of LECs, how they determine their strategy, their range of activities and how they go about these activities.

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