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Prospects for the South West Economy

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Prospects for the South West Economy House of Commons South West Regional Committee Prospects for the South West Economy Second Report of Session 2009–10 Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 22 March 2010 HC 355 Published on 31 March 2010 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £0.00 The South West Regional Committee The South West Regional Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine regional strategies and the work of regional bodies. Current membership Alison Seabeck MP (Labour, Plymouth Devonport) (Chair) Mr David Drew MP (Labour, Stroud) Roger Berry MP (Labour, Kingswood) Kerry McCarthy MP (Labour, Bristol East) Dr Doug Naysmith MP (Labour, Bristol North West) Powers The Committee is one of the Regional Committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152F. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk. Publication The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the Internet at http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/sw.cfm Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are David Slater (Clerk), Duma Langton (Inquiry Manager), Dr Timothy Phillips (NAO Adviser), Emma Sawyer (Senior Committee Assistant), Ian Blair (Committee Assistant) and Anna Browning (Committee Assistant). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the South West Regional Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 0654; the Committee’s email address is [email protected] Prospects for the South West economy 1 Contents Report Page Summary 3 1 Introduction 5 2 Recent Economic Performance 6 3 Strengths and Opportunities 9 Advanced manufacturing 9 ‘Green’ industries 10 Tourism and the Creative Industries 12 Small and micro-businesses 13 Prompt payment 15 Broadband 15 4 Risks and Issues 18 Public spending cuts 18 Universities 20 Skills 22 Apprenticeships and the Future Jobs Fund 24 Complexity of business support 25 Finance 26 Conclusion 30 Conclusions and recommendations 31 Formal Minutes 34 Witnesses 35 List of written evidence 35 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 36 Prospects for the South West economy 3 Summary This report follows up on our first inquiry into the South West economy in the summer of 2009. The region is showing signs of recovery and we found evidence of positives steps to assist this progress. However, we also found some issues that gave us cause for concern. Small and micro businesses, and social enterprises, are very important to the region’s economy and have shown remarkable resilience through the recession. Business support initiatives need to be flexible enough to help even the smallest businesses expand and export. Lending to small businesses remains still a problem. The Government needs to maintain pressure on the banks to help small and medium sized businesses through the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme. The region needs to ensure that the transitional relief for business rate re-evaluation is applied effectively across the region. SWRDA need to continue to review its work against the Government’s Business Support Simplification Programme. We want businesses in the region to expand and grow, we want rural and peripheral areas to be competitive, and we want to help reduce the distance between the South West and important markets. Broadband is a crucial part of achieving this. There is considerable potential in a future economy based on green industries, and the opportunities this might provide for jobs, skills, supply chains, investment, environment and the quality of life for the people of the region. The new National Composites Centre is an example of the possible benefits. However, there needs to be effective co-ordination and leadership at a regional level in order to realise the full benefits. Similarly, if the region is to develop a future economy based on green industry, advanced manufacturing, the digital economy, creative industries and life sciences it needs to continue to increase the take up of science, technology, electronics and maths subjects at all levels of education and retain graduates in the region. Joint working between employers and educational institutions must be encouraged at all levels. We need to ensure that opportunities brought through the Future Jobs Fund and public sector investment bring opportunities to tackle the problem of youth unemployment. Another crucial issue for the region is retaining jobs and skills. We are pleased that employers, universities, Jobcentre Plus, the regional development agency and others in the South West are working together to try to keep people in work and uplift their skills. The Regional Minister needs to do all he can to ensure that both cuts in public spending, and reorganisation to bodies involved in skills provision, do not impact upon this good work. There is a vital need for leadership in the South West to address issues concerning the future economy of the region. How the public sector spends its money can have a considerable effect on the regional economy. Local authorities need to support the prompt payment scheme and show they are leading from the front in supporting business and jobs. We would want to see the Smith Review into civil service relocation bring more public sector jobs to the region and urge regional bodies to press its case with central government. Prospects for the South West economy 5 1 Introduction 1. This Committee published a report on the effects of the economic downturn on the South West region and on the actions the Government had taken to alleviate those effects in July 2009.1 We made a number of recommendations, to which the Government responded in November 2009.2 2. This report looks ahead to the future prospects for the South West Economy. In it, we examine the region’s economic performance over recent months; re-examine some of the issues raised in our first report and focus on a number of specific sectors within the region. A call for evidence was issued asking for responses on the following points: a) the prospects for the regional economy; b) what the region is doing to promote the five sectors identified in the Government’s Partnership for Growth document: digital economy, low carbon technologies, life sciences, advanced manufacturing, and the creative industries; and c) the effectiveness of regional bodies in supporting rural and remote economies in the region. This report has three parts. • In Part 1, we give a brief overview of the region’s economic performance; • In Part 2, we examine some of the regional strengths and opportunities identified by our witnesses; and • In Part 3, we lay out the key risks and issues facing the regional economy in the immediate future. 1 First Report of Session 2008–09, Impact of the economic downturn on the South West and the Government’s response, HC 392 2 First Special Report of Session 2008–09, Impact of the economic downturn on the South West and the Government’s response: Government response to the Committee’s First Report of Session 2008–09, HC 1092 6 Prospects for the South West economy 2 Recent Economic Performance 3. At the time of our last report the course that the recession would take in the South West was still unclear. Eight months on, we are pleased to see that the regional economy has responded more resiliently than might have been expected, though many individuals and companies have suffered personally. Recent evidence from a number of different sources contributes to this picture. 4. The main indicator of regional economic growth is the Gross Value Added (GVA) Headline Workplace measure.3 There is a long lag on this, with data for 2008 only becoming available in December 2009. Nonetheless, it provides a guide to the early part of the recession, which commenced in the second quarter of that year. The performance of the South West was encouraging: GVA increased by 3.6% year-on-year, to reach £97.8 billion in 2008. Only London and Scotland experienced faster growth. Unemployment 5. The most up-to-date indications of economic performance come from employment data and from surveys of business professionals. In the three months to September 2009 the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in the South West was 6.6%, lower than the rate for the United Kingdom as a whole of (7.8%), and the third-lowest for any English region (Figure 1). In terms of the percentage increase in unemployment, however, the South West has fared worse than every other region except the West Midlands. Figure 1. Unemployment rate by region, April–June 2008 and July–September 2009. April-June 2008 July-September 2009 Region Unemployment Region Unemployment Region Increase rate (%) rate (%) (%) North East 7.5 West Midlands 10.0 West Midlands 3.9 London 6.7 North East9.5 South West 2.8 North West 6.4 London 9.0 Yorkshire and 2.7 the Humber West Midlands 6.2 Yorkshire and 8.7 London 2.3 the Humber Yorkshire and 6.0 North West 8.6 North West 2.2 the Humber East Midlands 5.6 East Midlands 7.5 North East 2.1 East 4.6 South West 6.6 East 1.9 South East 4.1 East 6.5 South East 1.9 South West 3.8 South East 6.0 East Midlands 1.8 Source: Labour Force Survey. 6. The other major measure of unemployment—the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance—also increased in the South West over the same period.
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