Seven new organisations could be set up across the South West to take charge of backing business, Eric Pickles said yesterday.

The Communities and Local Government Secretary published a list of bids to take over from the South West Regional Development Agency (RDA).

The coalition Government is abolishing it, claiming the organisation served an artificial political region, which stretched from Tewkesbury to Truro and Bournemouth.

Instead Mr Pickles wants Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to take on the role of encouraging economic development and private sector job growth.

The proposals for LEPs include one from Gloucestershire, Swindon and Wiltshire, and West of England, taking in Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

A bid called the Heart of South West plan is from Somerset County Council, and Taunton Deane Borough and Sedgemoor, South Somerset and West Somerset district councils.

However South Somerset District Council has joined forces with East Devon District Council

Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole are joining forces, while in the far South West Devon, Torbay and Plymouth want to form one LEP, and Cornwall and the Scilly Isles a second.

Herefordshire wants to join Shropshire in setting up the Marches Enterprise Partnership.

So despite Mr Pickles saying the new partnerships are free to cross what he calls "arbitrary boundaries", none of the seven planned West LEPs go outside the region's RDA.

The deadline for bids was on Monday, and ministers will consider them over the next few weeks before publishing detailed plans in the autumn.

In total there are 56 proposals for LEPs to replace England's nine RDAs, and Mr Pickles said they were a radical new way of delivering prosperity.

"We are facing economic problems that need solutions from local communities," he said.

"The secret to the success of LEPs will be working on the basis of local economic geography – gone are the artificial political regions of RDAs – this will better serve the needs of local business."

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "It is clear that there must be genuine partnership between business and local government and that LEPs should be practical bodies for promoting enterprise, not talking shops."

He said LEPs would have the flexibility to decide their own agenda and priorities rather than have it handed down by Whitehall.

But he confirmed trade and investment promotion, innovation, business support and access to finance "will in future be led nationally" – which has led to claims this is a central Government power grab.

By coincidence, RDAs were yesterday appearing before the Commons Business Committee.

South West RDA chief executive Sir Harry Studholme warned the region could lose out to Wales because of the loss of the personal relationships that were vital in negotiations.

"Most of the inward investment success derives from pre-existing relationships," he said. "They are existing customers who operate inside areas so creating those relationships is absolutely key to bringing companies from Japan or America.

"In this flux those relationships have a risk of being broken down."