SOUTHEND-ON-SEA LOCAL ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT Southend-On-Sea Borough Council
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SOUTHEND-ON-SEA LOCAL ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT Southend-on-Sea Borough Council DOCUMENT REFRESH – FINAL REPORT v4.00 December 2013 Southend-on-Sea Local Economic Assessment Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................... 1 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 6 2. UPDATED CONTEXT TO REFRESHED LEA ............................................................... 8 3. SOUTHEND-ON-SEA WITHIN SOUTH EAST LEP ..................................................... 14 4. ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY .......................................................................................... 35 5. BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE ................................................................................... 40 6. PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES .................................................................................... 76 7. SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH .................................................................... 108 8. ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS ............................................................................. 137 9. CONCLUSIONS AND PRIORITIES ........................................................................... 149 APPENDIX I: LEA ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK............................................................. 152 APPENDIX II: GLOSSARY ............................................................................................... 153 APPENDIX III: LIST OF SOURCE MATERIAL ................................................................. 155 December 2013 The emergence of a project to create the world’s largest health innovation space at the Anglia Ruskin MedTech EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Campus in Chelmsford, Harlow and Southend-on-Sea. MedTech. Southend-on-Sea will be part of the Airport Overview Business Park, which is projected to deliver a total of 7,200 net additional jobs by 2021. This document is a refreshed version of the original Local Economic Assessment (LEA) produced in 2010. It provides: A new £27m state-of-the-art library and learning facility (“The Forum Southend”) located in a new public square in an update on development milestones achieved in the heart of Southend-on-Sea Town Centre (opened in Southend-on-Sea and changes to the economic September 2013). development policy and associated architecture in England. A new £3m Cultural Centre opened in July 2012 and a detailed comparative review of the Southend-on-Sea renamed the Royal Pavilion in July 2013. Located on economy – covering a variety of themes – against Southend Pier, the Royal Pavilion hosts a variety of events, neighbouring authorities, SELEP partners and regional / concerts and exhibitions including music, theatre, art and national indicators. photography. public and private sector partners with a robust and up-to- The Local Government Chronicle (LGC) Council of the Year date evidence base to support future allocation of resources Award in 2012 which recognised the Council’s performance and wide ranging funding applications. in providing high quality services which meet the changing needs of Southend-on-Sea residents. Whilst the statutory requirement for LEA’s no longer exists, the structure of this document broadly aligns with the original The creation of Southend-on-Sea Business Improvement statutory guidelines and seeks to reflect the specific needs of District (BID) in November 2012 covering the Town Centre Southend-on-Sea. and the Seafront part-funding and unlocking significant investment for the town. Context update The Purple Flag accreditation award for Southend-on-Sea’s There have been a number of key contextual changes that have High Street and sea front in recognition of excellence in the occurred since the original LEA document was published. town and city centres at night-time management and its contribution to the town’s expanding post 6pm economy. Important development milestones achieved have included: December 2013 1 Key public policy changes that have occurred since 2010 Southend-on-Sea’s position within the SELEP include: A key element of this refreshed LEA document was a new The abolition of the Regional Development Agencies comparative analysis of Southend-on-Sea in the context of the (RDAs) and their replacement by a series of Local newly established SELEP. Highlights of this analysis are set out Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) operating across newly below: defined functional economic geographies. Southend-on-Sea is the second smallest of the six upper The establishment of the South East Local Enterprise tier local authorities in SELEP, with 174,800 residents. Partnership (SELEP) which covers 35 local authorities However, it is the fourth largest of the 32 lower tier across Essex, Southend-on-Sea, Thurrock, Kent, Medway authorities behind Medway (264,900) and the Essex and East Sussex. SELEP is the second largest of the LEPs districts of Basildon (176,500) and Colchester (176,000). behind London. Southend-on-Sea is more than twice the size of Rochford, Harlow, Uttlesford and Brentwood and almost three times The creation of additional funds for LEP areas through a bigger than Maldon. Single Local Growth fund and the creation of a ‘Structural SELEP’s total employment (1,506,300) includes Southend- and Investment Fund Growth Programme ’. on-Sea’s employment of 63,400 which makes it the six largest of the 32 SELEP districts, representing 4.3 per cent The introduction of a series of tailored ‘city deals’ to of SELEP’s total employment. empower local public and private partners to drive real and sustainable change. Southend-on-Sea has been selected Southend-on-Sea has one of the country’s highest for the second wave of the City Deal scheme and is proportion of employees working part-time and is ranked 3rd developing a negotiation document. among the 32 lower tier authorities in SELEP. SELEP has the 5th highest proportion of part-time workers of all 39 The selection of the Whole Essex Community Budget as LEPS. one of four pilot areas chosen by the Government in December 2011. The Milton ward in Southend-on-Sea has Among the 32 districts in SELEP, Southend-on-Sea ranks received £53k from the Whole Essex Community Budget to 4th for both claimant count rate and share of residents in develop stronger communities. receipt of out of work benefits. Since the start of the recession, the claimant count in Southend-on-Sea has increased by 68.5 per cent. This is the 56th highest increase in England. However, SELEP has seen an December 2013 2 increase of 72.1 per cent, well above the 59.3 per cent seen 2.2, is recorded by water transport, which scores only 0.5 in across England. Southend-on-Sea. Southend-on-Sea has low educational attainment. Across Southend-on-Sea is a small firm economy with 84.7 per SELEP, only Thurrock has a higher share of residents with cent of VAT / PAYE registered businesses having fewer no qualifications and a lower share of graduates. than 10 employees and only 3.0 per cent employing 100 or more. However, Southend-on-Sea has only the third SELEP generated £64.04 billion gross value added in 2011, highest proportion of small firms in SELEP behind East including £2.64 billion from Southend-on-Sea. Of the six Sussex (85.8%) and Essex (84.8%). NUTS 3 regions1 that comprise SELEP, Southend-on-Sea th is the second smallest, ahead of Thurrock but well behind Southend-on-Sea has the 11 most self-contained labour Kent and Essex where GVA is respectively £25.86 billion market in SELEP, with 62.4 per cent of employed residents and £24.89 billion. also working in the borough. This ranks Southend-on-Sea 130th among the 326 lower tier authorities in England. Southend-on-Sea’s GVA per capita of £15,818 is the lowest However, high levels of self-containment are associated in SELEP and the 92nd highest among the UK’s NUTS 3 with weaker and more deprived economies, with the highest regions while SELEP ranks only 27th among the 39 LEPs at levels of self-containment in SELEP being recorded in £16,810, well below the national figure of £21,368. Thanet, Shepway and Hastings. Public administration makes the largest contribution to Southend-on-Sea is the 7th most deprived of the 32 SELEP Southend-on-Sea’s GVA, accounting for 27.0 per cent, the lower tier authorities, ranking 79th of all 326 local authority highest share of any upper tier authority in SELEP. districts in England. 2 At the 2-digit level, ‘other manufacturing’ and ‘gambling and betting activities’ achieve the highest location quotients in Southend-on-Sea at 3.1 and 2.8, employing 700 and 600 respectively. Across SELEP, the highest location quotient, 1 The NUTS classification (Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics) is a hierarchical system for dividing up the economic territory of the EU. NUTS level 3 covers small regions for specific diagnoses. 2 ‘Other manufacturing includes the manufacture of medical and dental instruments, as well as sports good and jewellery and imitation jewellery. December 2013 3 Review of the Southend-on-Sea economy the 50th highest proportion of any of the 152 upper tier authorities in England. This revised LEA provides a detailed comparative review of numerous aspects of the Southend-on-Sea economy. Below we Key challenges: present key strengths and challenges for each theme under review. On-going over-reliance on the public sector (particularly health and education) represents a significant risk for the Business and Enterprise town given the government’s