As the leader of South Lakeland District Council I get the opportunity to sit on Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership board for two years. I represent both South Lakeland and Barrow, taking over from Dave Pidduck (Barrow Borough Council leader) who is just finishing his two-year term.

Many readers may not be familiar with the Local Enterprise Partnership. However, it is actually a very important body which brings together the private and public sector across Cumbria to identify ways in which we can enhance the economic growth of the county. The government responds to the board's request for funds based on specific projects and recently the Cumbria LEP was awarded more than £12.6m for projects in the area. To give an example of its influence, it is thanks to a combined effort of the LEP, the county council and SLDC, that I am hopeful that we will see the realisation of the Cross-a-Moor roundabout.

Dave Pidduck has been a very collaborative partner for South Lakeland over the past two years and I hope to be the same for Barrow during my next two years. Indeed, I am hoping that Dave and I will have frequent and fruitful discussions about how our two districts, potentially working with other districts, can enhance economic activity that will bring benefit to all residents. From our conversations and from research that I have seen, we do seem to have a lot in common and there are realistic opportunities for fruitful collaboration. As I understand it, some 6,000 people travel to work between our districts each day.

We in South Lakeland have particular challenges that I look forward to discussing with colleagues across Cumbria. For example, our population is ageing unusually fast. We are projecting a significant need for workers in the age bracket 16 to 24 in the next few years and we will have to work out how we will attract them.

Providing good housing is an important part of the package to attract young workers. In addition, as a result of an ageing population, over the next 20 years the average household size is forecast to reduce from 2.2 to 2.0. This puts further pressure on our housing need which again emphasises housing as a critical issue for local government.

We have a lot of things in our favour: a great environment, a national park which hopefully will get world heritage status, terrific festivals, a vibrant tourism and hospitality sector, and proximity to world leading engineering. But if we are to grow in a diverse way we need to bring more development land into use, we need to improve the availability of the right skills, enhance our infrastructure, and complete 100 per cent availability of broadband. I am optimistic that the LEP can help in many of these areas as can the county council.

I am therefore very much looking forward to working collaboratively with the other members of the LEP board to find ways to accelerate the growth and enhance the prosperity that benefits us all.

Giles Archibald, leader of South Lakeland District Council