For more information regarding the content of this publication, please contact: Marek Styczen, Project Officer - Enterprise Planning & Development The Environment Service Perth & Kinross Council Pullar House 35 Kinnoull Street PERTH PH1 5GD Tel 01738 477944 Email [email protected] Economic Journal We welcome your comments and feedback. Quarter 3 2016 (July - September 2016) The Journal is an electronic publication on the state of the local economy prepared and published by Planning & Development in Perth & Kinross Council.

Quarter 3 2016 Highlights • Construction was among top 3 industries for Business Start-up companies. • Perth & Kinross had 3rd lowest Claimant Count rate in . • The value of House Sales in the area between July and September 2016 was £156 Million. • The Claimant Count rate remains in line with pre-recession levels of JSA Claimant Rate. • 9 new business openings were recorded in . • Perth City Centre is where most business start-ups were recorded at the end of the Quarter. • 9 out of 10 Claimants in Perth City were resident either in Perth City North or Perth City Centre. • Perth City Centre footfall numbers rose by 21.7% on last year.

Labour Market Business Claimant Count rates Business Start-Up and numbers Business Gateway Best and Worst Start-Up Performing Wards Investment Benefit Claimants Planning Applications

Perth City Centre Housing Market Business Unit Vacancy House Prices Rate Market Volumes Footfall Labour Market Perth City Centre Business Housing Market

Unemployment Claimant Count Rate in Scottish Local Authorities Dundee City, 3.6% Perth & Kinross and Neighbouring Areas, September 2016

• Perth & Kinross area remains among the e 4.0 very top local authority areas with the third a t 3.5 R

Angus, 2.0% t 3.0 , 1.5% lowest rate in Scotland. The rate of 1.1% n

u 2.5 recorded in September 2016 is in line with

C o 2.0 pre-recession levels. t 1.5 a n 1.0 m

• Our key neighbouring Local Authority a i 0.5 C l areas fared less favourably than Perth & 0.0 Kinross in September. Their rates ranged % Local Authority Areas from 1.5% in Stirling to 3.6% in Dundee. Perth & Kinross, 1.1% , 2.4%

• The comparative areas also recorded deterioration in performance Claimant Count Rate Perth & Kinross compared to the same month in 2015. Perth & Kinross rate remained January 2014 - September 2016 Scotland static year-on-year.

4.0 Tay Cities Region 3.5 • From April 2016 onwards, the Claimant Count rate in Perth & Kinross area has included Universal Credit Claimant records. 3.0 2.5 • Claimant Count rate in Perth & Kinross averaged 1.1% over the 12 2.0 2.2 months between September 2015 and September 2016. 1.5 • There were 985 Claimants in Perth & Kinross in September 2016. % Claimant CountRate 1.0 1.1 • The Perth City Claimant Count rate of 1.6% remains above Perth & 0.5 Kinross area but below Scottish average. 0.0 2014 2015 2016 • Tay Cities Region includes the areas of Perth & Kinross, Angus, Dundee City and North-East Fife. Source: NOMIS Labour Market Perth City Centre Business Housing Market

Best and Worst Performing Wards

• The map illustrates how the wards in Perth & Kinross performed in terms of Claimant Count rate.* The rates recorded across the area Blairgowrie and Glens: 1.1% in September 2016 range from 0.6% to 2.0%, compared to a slightly wider range of 0.5% to 2.3% a year before. In other words, : 0.7% the gap between the best and the worst wards has lessened.

• The lowest rate of 0.6% was in . : 1.0% Strathtay: 0.6% • Blairgowrie and the Glens was the ward with the highest annual increase in rate of 0.3 percentage points. Perth City Centre had the highest rate of improvement on last year - the rate dropped there Carse of : 0.7% by 0.3 percentage points. 87% of the Claimants in Perth City were : 0.9% resident in either City Centre or City North wards. : 0.8% • All wards in Perth & Kinross had rates lower than the 2.2% in Scotland as a whole. : 0.7% Kinross-shire: 0.7% • 50% of all Perth & Kinross Claimants were resident in Perth City. Perth City *As of April 2016, Claimant Count and related rates for Perth & Kinross area include Universal Credit Claimants.

Perth City North: 1.8% Perth City Centre: 2.0% Scotland: 2.2% 0.3%pts Blairgowrie and Glens : 0.8% Rate of annual 0.2%pts Highland, Strathmore improvement 0.1%pts Perth City South, in % points: 0%pts Kinross-shire, Strathallan, Strathtay Sept 2016 on Sept 2015 -0.1%pts Perth City North, Strathearn, Almond and Earn -0.3%pts Perth City Centre 0.6% 2.2% Source: NOMIS Labour Market Perth City Centre Business Housing Market

Bene t Claimants Benefit Claimant Rate bereaved 0.2 0.2 by Statistical Group, Q2 2016 • The latest bene t claimant data available at the time of publica- tion was for the second Quarter of 2016. 1.0 Perth & Kinross • disabled 1.0 There were 9,240 bene t claimants in Perth & Kinross in Q2 2016, Scotland others on income related 0.2 130 less than a year before. This is a marginal drop of 1.4% over the benefit 0.2 course of a year. The numbers are relatively static.

1.3 • The rate of Bene t Claimants was at 10% in the area, down from carer 1.7 10.4% in the previous year. It was also well below the Scottish level 0.6 of 13.4%. lone parent 0.9 • Statistical Group allocation in the table to the left is an indication 5.7 ESA and incapacity benefits 7.8 of the main reason people claim bene ts.

1.0 job seeker 1.6 % population receiving state benefits

Source: Department for Work and Pensions Labour Market Perth City Centre Business Housing Market

Business Unit Vacancy Rate Footfall • The month-to-month footfall numbers in the third Quarter rose above the numbers observed in the same months the year before. The biggest growth was in September 2016 with the footfall 21.7% • Perth City Centre business vacancy rate in higher than the same month a year earlier. Q3 2016 fell slightly on the previous quarter, with the level of 9.04% recorded between July 9.04% • The rise is encouraging and as long as consumer con dence and September also being above last year’s remains positive, the numbers are expected to rise further to reach 8.69%. The rate was also above the 7.93% rate a peak in November – December in line with pre-Christmas 2 years before. Vacant Unit seasonality trends. Rate, Perth City • Between July and September 2016, there Centre were 9 new business openings against the backdrop of 10 closures. Perth City Centre Footfall 2014 2015 2016 391,381 Perth City Vacant Units Rate Visitors, 500,000 September 2016 450,000 400,000 9 10%

r 350,000 9% e b e

8% 9.04 m 300,000

number of 8.69 u a t R 7% N

7.93

l 250,000

new y c 6% a l

business tf 200,000 a n

5% o o

openings in 4% F

V a c 150,000

t Numbers are Perth City i 3% n 100,000 usually lowest Centre, Q3 U 2% 50,000 at start of year 2016 1% 0% - Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2014 2015 2016 Source: Perth & Kinross Council Labour Market Perth City Centre Business Housing Market

Enterprise Start-up • In Perth & Kinross the number of businesses starting up during Business Start-ups in Perth & Kinross the rst nine months of this year compared with the corresponding period of last year was broadly unchanged (-0.8%). This growth rate s 250 p u ranks Perth & Kinross at 11 out of the 32 Scottish local authority t r

areas. a t 200 S

s s

• There were 64 new businesses in September 2016 in Perth & e n Kinross area, 2 fewer than the previous month and 4 fewer than in i s 150 u

September 2015. B

f o 100 • Within the area, Perth City Centre saw the most start-ups; N o Strathmore saw the least. 50 • The make up of start-ups is Limited Companies 51.6%, Sole Traders 29.7%, Other For Pro t Start-ups (mainly Partnerships) 6.3% and Not For Pro t 12.5%. 0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 • The top 3 industries account for 60.5% of the starts. 2014 2015 2016 • Perth & Kinross accounted for 2.7% of all start-ups across the Scotland. Top 3 Start up Industries

Real estate, professional services & support activities Note: A ‘Start-up’ reflects the opening of a first current account from a small business banking product range. They represent businesses new to banking or those previously operated through a Recreational, personal & community service personal account. The data exclude businesses operating through personal accounts. Construction

Source: BankSearch Labour Market Perth City Centre Business Housing Market

Cost of Works in Perth & Kinross Investment £147.6M s

• The monetary values reported in this section are n 140 o i l l an indication of investment, both under way in i 120

the reporting period, and planned within the £ M 100

, following 3 years. 16.3 Million s k 80 Cost in Pound Sterling of r Building Works requiring o

w 60

• The value of building works requiring a Building building warrant in Q2 2016 f £36.0M o 40 Warrant in Quarter 3 of 2016 was £16.3 million. t s £16.3M o

The gure in the same Quarter a year before was c 20 much higher at £147.6 million. However, that was 0 an unprecedented value - please see note below the chart to the right. Quarter 3 in 2014 was higher as well but at £36 million. *Due to legislation changes in October 2015, Perth & Kinross Council registered an unprecedented volume of applications in the months preceding the changes, which reflected in the value of works reported for Q3 2015 (and possibly Q2 2015 to a lesser extent). For the same reason, it is impractical to treat these values as directly comparable with other reported figures.

Planning Applications Planning Applications in Perth & Kinross • The number of new Planning Applications submitted to Perth & Kinross Registered Applications Determined Applications Council fell in the third quarter of the year to 430; this was signi cantly below the 601 in the same Quarter a year earlier. However, the caveat observed with 600 regards to Building Warrant numbers in Q3 2015 also applies to Planning 601 595 Applications, albeit perhaps to a smaller degree. It is not uncommon for 400 430 Building Warrant applications to be paired with Planning Applications 391 submitted at the same time. 200 • The number of determined applications at 391 was also at a lower level than 0 the previous year’s gure of 595. Q3 2015 Q4 2015 Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016

Source: Perth & Kinross Council Labour Market Perth City Centre Business Housing Market

House Prices Average (Mean) Residential Property Prices Average (Mean) Residential Property Prices £300,000 £300,000 • There was a rise in house prices in Q3 2016 in Detached Perth & Kinross, with the mean residential £250,000 £250,000 property price of £190,588. This gure was over £20k above the Scottish average. £200,000 £200,000 Semi- • Average Perth & Kinross house prices were 9th Detached £150,000 highest among local authority areas in Scotland. Terraced £150,000

• The average Perth & Kinross price for a £100,000 £100,000 Flatted detached property reached £261,905 in the third Quarter of the year, over £10k higher than the £50,000 £50,000 previous Quarter and the highest it has been since the nancial crash 8 years ago. The gure £0 £0 for Scotland as a whole was marginally higher Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 than the previous Quarter and £12,039 lower 2014 2015 2016 2014 2015 2016 than Perth & Kinross. • After a couple of static months, the average atted property price in the area rose to £107,399 in Q3 2016. This was almost £7k higher than the previous two Quarters. The price was also £805 higher than the same Quarter last year. Flatted properties remain the only type of property in Perth & Kinross whose prices are £190,588 £170,309 below the Scottish average. • Mean average semi-detached property price in the area, when compared to the previous Quarter, dropped by around £1k to £174,562. This was £13.7k above the Scottish average and £14.2k above last year in Perth & Kinross.

Average House Price Average House Price • The prices of terraced properties, when observed as a 12-month trend prior to Q3 2016, were gradually (All Types) (All Types) declining. The average price rose in Quarter 3, however and reached £143,831 which is almost identical to Perth & Kinross Scotland Quarter 1. The latest Scottish average, for comparison, was £137,584.

Source: Registers of Scotland Labour Market Perth City Centre Business Housing Market

Market Volumes Housing Market in Perth & Kinross by Volume of Sales • 820 houses sold in Perth & Kinross area between July and

d 900 l

o September 2016, compared to 807 in the same Quarter a year

S 800

earlier. Detached property sales at 326 constitute the largest s e 700 proportion (40%) in the volume of sales. ti r 807 820 e 600 p 752 o • Houses sold in Perth & Kinross accounted for 3% of the housing r 500 P

f stock sales in Scotland. For comparison, the value of house sales o

400

. in Perth & Kinross constitutes 3.4% of the total value of residen-

N o 300 tial property sales in Scotlad. 200 100 0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 2014 2015 2016

£156 Million £4,595 Million value of residential value of residential property sales in Perth property sales in & Kinross, Q3 2016 Scotland, Q3 2016

Source: Registers of Scotland