Specific issue: A lack of local jobs
In many communities it is felt that there is a lack of local jobs for local people to access. People would rather work locally but have to travel a long way in order to find work. With such an ‘open' topic, it is important to establish the facts about where people work, what reasonable aspirations are about living and working locally in such a global economy and therefore how planning policy can encourage this. It is vital that a topic such as this defines the issue at hand very carefully.
|
Topic
|
|
Employment
|
|
Specific issues to be addressed
|
|
A lack of local jobs
|
|
What do neighbourhood groups have to be able to properly demonstrate with the evidence they collect in order to ensure that NP policy is robust?
|
- A clear view on what reasonably constitutes a local job – what is the catchment area?
- That there is a lack of jobs which are appropriate for the local population and that new jobs are being filled by in-commuters.
- That any policy solution is deliverable and is in general conformity with district-wide strategic employment policy.
|
| <
What evidence do neighbourhood groups need to collect to help them demonstrate the issue and develop policy?
|
- Evidence of difficulties for local people in accessing local jobs – by sector, skill type.
- Evidence of the types of jobs made available by local companies and why local people don't tend to fill these positions.
- Evidence of the types of jobs – by sector and skills – that may be filled by local people, either seeking work or currently in work.
- A market assessment of whether this location has prospects to attract these types of jobs.
- Evidence of the types of employment floorspace that would need to be provided for the type of businesses that are wanted to locate in the local area.
- Existing availability of appropriate floorspace and evidence of why it has not been taken up.
- Demonstration of how new commercial premises may be delivered – that it is viable and that there is interest in doing so, either as a stand-alone development or as part of a mixed use scheme.
|
|
What questions should they ask (either through a survey or focus group, etc) in order to gather effective evidence?
|
|
Local residents
- How old are you?
- Do you work? If yes, what employment sector do you work in and at what broad skill/ qualification level? How much do you earn?
- If you do not work, why is this?
- If you work, where do you work? How do you travel to work? Would you prefer to work in the local area? Why?
- Have you ever tried to access a job locally? If so, what type of job was it? Were you successful? If not, do you know why not?
- Could you work from home? If you could, then what prevents you from doing so?
Local businesses
- What is your business and what is the skills profile of your workforce?
- How many people do you employ by broad skills area?
- Where do your workers live? How do they travel to work?
- Do you find it hard or easy to recruit people locally? Does this differ for particular posts?
- Are you expecting to recruit more staff in the next 5 years? If so, roughly how many and what would this be dependent on?
Developers
- Would you be willing to provide a certain amount of commercial floorspace of a particular kind as part of any proposed development you bring forward?
Commercial agents
- Would the type of employment which would be attractive/commercially viable to local workers be equally attractive to investors/new businesses?
- Why is existing floorspace not being taken up?
|
|
What evidence have you got to help neighbourhoods demonstrate the issue and develop policy? - How useful is it for them? - Is it in a useable form?
|
|
|
|
Evidence
|
Useful?
|
Useable format?
|
|
Employment allocations in Local Plan/Site Allocations DPD
|
|
|
|
Employment Land Review (ELR)
|
|
|
|
District retail study
|
|
|
|
Employment forecasts
|
|
|
|
Economic development data – apprenticeships, training, business surveys
|
|
|
|
Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) – to understand the profile of workers in terms of the housing they demand
|
|
|
|
Core Strategy/Local Plan SA/SEA background information
|
|
|
|
Index of Multiple Deprivation - employment
|
|
|
|
Local commuting patterns – from Census 2011 when available
|
|
|
|
Local/travel-to-work-area (TTWA) socio-economic profile – Census 2011 data when available
|
|
|
|
Annual monitoring reports – employment development by type
|
|
|
|
Unemployment data
|
|
|
|
Local Job Centre Plus data on vacancies
|
|
|
|
Demographic information – age breakdown of local population and population projections
|
|
|