Highlands and Islands Enterprise is now a unified agency, with area teams located throughout our region. Local enterprise companies no longer operate – some information on these pages may not be up-to-date. If in doubt please call your local area office.
Follow this link to view current information about HIE..

Local Economic Forum

Local Economic Forums exist to improve partnership working in local economic strategy, and in particular to ensure that the private sector has the chance to contribute to public sector planning.

The idea of local economic forums came from work done by the Scottish Parliament's Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee in 2000. The Scottish Executive supported the idea and the LEF was formed in March 2001.

Learn more about the work of the local economic forum using the links below:

Key links

Membership At present the Inverness and East Highland Local Economic Forum has members drawn from key public and private sector organisations.Meetings The Local Economic Forum meets quarterly. In addition it meets with neighbouring forums from time to time - to discuss issues of common interest.Recent LEF documents The LEF agrees an action plan with the Scottish Executive. You can download key Local Economic Forum documents here.Forum agenda The area's LEF works to progress priorities in its action plan.Transport As part of a cross-LEF initiative, the Local Economic Forum lobbied for improvements to the transport infrastructure of the area.