PERTH & For more information regarding the KINROSS content of this publication, please contact: Marek Styczen, Project Officer - Enterprise Planning & Development The Environment Service ECONOMIC Perth & Kinross Council Pullar House 35 Kinnoull Street PERTH

April 2017 April JOURNAL PH1 5GD Tel 01738 477944 Email [email protected] We welcome your comments and feedback.

The Journal is an electronic publication on the state of the local economy prepared and published by Planning & Development in Perth & Kinross Council.

• Perth & Kinross had 3rd lowest Claimant Count rate in Scotland. Quarter I 2017 Highlights • The Claimant Count rate has remained in line with pre-recession levels of JSA Claimant Count rate for over 2 years. • 9 out of 10 Claimants in Perth City were resident either in or . • For the first time in 12 months, a ward in Perth & Kinross had a higher rate than Scotland as a whole - it was Perth City Centre at 2.6%. • 91 new businesses started in Perth & Kinross in March 2017. • House prices in Perth & Kinross were nearly £35k above Scottish average.

Labour Market Perth City Centre Enterprise Housing Market Claimanr Count rate Business Unit Vacancy Rate Business Start Ups House Prices Best- and Worst-Performing Wards Footfall Investment Market Volume Planning PERTH & KINROSS ECONOMIC

Labour Market Perth City Centre Business Housing Market

April 2017 April JOURNAL

Unemployment Claimant Count Rate in Scottish Local Authorities Dundee City, 3.4% e Perth & Kinross and Neighbouring Areas, March 2017 • Perth & Kinross area remains among the t a 4.0 R very top local authority areas with the third t 3.5

n Angus, 2.2% lowest rate in Scotland - the same as East u 3.0 Stirling, 1.7% o

Renfrewshire. The rate of 1.3% recorded in C 2.5

t 2.0 March 2017 marks over 2 years of perfor- n mance in line with pre-recession levels. a 1.5 m i

a 1.0 l

C 0.5 • Our key neighbouring Local Authority % 0.0 areas fared less favourably than Perth & Local Authority Areas Kinross in March. Their rates ranged from 1.7% in Stirling to 3.4% in Dundee. Perth & Kinross, 1.3% Fife, 2.7%

• The comparative areas also recorded a more pronounced deterio- Claimant Count Rate Perth & Kinross ration in performance compared to the same month in 2016. Perth &

e 4 Kinross rate declined by 0.1% points year-on-year. January 2015 - March 2017 Perth City a t

R Tay Cities Region

t 3.5 • There were 1,215 Claimants in Perth & Kinross in March 2017, 75

n Scotland

u more than the same month a year before. 3

C o 2.4 t 2.5 • The Perth City Claimant Count rate of 2.1% remains above Perth & a n 2.2 Kinross area but below Scottish average. The gap between Perth City m

a i 2 rate and Scotland’s rate has decreased marginally to 0.3 percentage 2.1

C l points.

% 1.5 Notes 1 1.3 From April 2016 onwards, the Claimant Count rate in Perth & Kinross area has included 0.5 Universal Credit Claimant records. 0 January January January Tay Cities Region includes the areas of Perth & Kinross, Angus, Dundee and North-East Fife. 2015 2016 2017 Source: NOMIS PERTH & KINROSS ECONOMIC

Labour Market Perth City Centre Business Housing Market

April 2017 April JOURNAL Best and Worst Performing Wards

• The graph illustrates how the wards in Perth & Kinross performed in terms of Claimant Count rate.* The rates recorded across the area in March 2017 ranged from 0.7% to 2.6%, compared to a marginally narrower range of 0.7% to 2.5% a year before. In other words, the gap between the best and the worst wards increased slightly which signals a minor deterioration in more deprived areas. The lowest rate of 0.7% was in .

• Perth City Centre was the ward with the highest annual increase in rate, at 0.2 percentage points. Perth City North, on the other hand, had the highest rate of improvement on last year - the rate dropped there by 0.3 percentage points.

• 87% of the Claimants in Perth City were resident in either City Centre or City , : 0.9% Strathallan: Carse of Gowrie, 2.4% North: City Centre Perth Strathtay: 0.7% Strathtay: 0.8% Kinross-shire: , 1.0% : City South, Perth , 1.1% : 1.2% and Glens: Blairgowrie 2.6% City Centre: Perth North wards.

• For the first time in 12 months, a ward in Perth & Kinross had a higher rate than Scotland as a whole - it was Perth City Centre at 2.6%. Perth City North rate climbed to reach the same rate as Scotland for the first time since May 2015. Importantly, it is too early to draw any long-term conclusions from this.

• 53% of all Perth & Kinross Claimants were resident in Perth City.

No change Annual Rate increase Rate decrease rate change: in rate March 2017 on March 2017

0.7% 2.6% Carse of Gowrie Blairgowrie and Glens Almond and Earn Perth City Centre Kinross-shire Perth City North Highland Strathmore Strathallan Strathtay Strathearn Source: NOMIS 2.4% Scotland: PERTH & KINROSS ECONOMIC

Labour Market Perth City Centre Business Housing Market

April 2017 April JOURNAL

Business Unit Vacancy Rate Footfall • Footfall numbers in the first 3 months of 2017 followed the established trend of steady growth starting with the low in January. The number of 366,587 in March 2017 was 21% higher than the • Perth City Centre business vacancy rate in previous month and a marginal 0.7% higher than March 2016. Q1 2017 increased on the previous quarter, with the level of 9.33% recorded between 7 • Footfall numbers do not directly relate to consumer spend in the January and March also being above last year’s City Centre. 8.25%. The rate was also above the 8.18% rate 8 2 years before.

• There were 8 new business openings against Perth City Centre Footfall 366,587 Visitors, the backdrop of 7 closures, 1 expansion and 2 Business Openings vs. Business Closures 500,000 March 2017 businesses moving premises in the first 3 Perth City Centre Q1 2017 months of the year. 450,000 400,000 Perth City Centre Business Unit Vacancy Rate r 350,000 e

10% b

9% m 300,000 N u e 8% 250,000 l a t f a l

R 7% 9.33

t 200,000 y 8.25 o c 6% 8.18 2015 o F a n 5% 150,000 Numbers are 2016 a c 4% V 100,000 usually lowest at 2017 t i 3% the start of a year n 50,000

U 2% 1% - 0% Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 2015 2016 2017

Source: Perth & Kinross Council PERTH & KINROSS ECONOMIC

Labour Market Perth City Centre Business Housing Market

April 2017 April JOURNAL

Enterprise Start-up Business Start-ups in Perth & Kinross • There were 10.7% fewer business start-ups in Perth & Kinross during the first three months of this year compared with the 120 s corresponding period of last year. This growth rate ranks Perth & p u Kinross at 26 out of the 32 Scottish local authority areas. t 100 a r t S

• Growth in the number of start-ups across Scotland has risen. So s 80 s far this year Clackmannanshire (60.0%), North Lanarkshire (57.5%) e n i and Angus (44.4%) have seen the strongest growth compared to the s 60 corresponding period in 2016. Dundee City (-13.8%), Orkney Islands B u f o (-14.7%) and East Lothian (-14.9%) have had the weakest growth. 40 N o • There were 91 new businesses in March 2017 in Perth & Kinross 20 area, 25 more than the previous month and 1 more than in March 2016. 0 l l l t t t r r r r r r r g g g y y v y v c v c c n n n b p b p n b p n b n n u u u c c c a a a a a a a p p p e e e u a u a u a a J J J o o o u u u J J J J J J J S e S e S e F e F e F e F e A A A O A O A O A M M M M M M M D D • Within the area, Strathtay saw the most start-ups; , Strathmore and D N N N Strathearn saw the least. 2014 2015 2016 2017 • The make up of start-ups is Limited Companies 50.5%, Sole Traders 25.3%, Other For Profit Start-ups (mainly Partnerships) 5.5% and Not For Profit 18.7%. Top 3 Start up Industries

• The top 3 industries account for 60.4% of the starts. Real estate, professional services & support activities • Perth & Kinross accounted for 3.1% of all start-ups across Scotland. Recreational, personal & community service Construction 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 personal account. The data exclude businesses operating through personal accounts. Source: BankSearch / Companies House PERTH & KINROSS ECONOMIC

Labour Market Perth City Centre Business Housing Market

April 2017 April JOURNAL

Investment Cost of Works in Perth & Kinross • The monetary values reported in this section are 140 £26.1 M an indication of investment, both under way in the £

, 120 reporting period, and planned within the following s k 3 years. r 100 o

w 80 f o

• The value of building works requiring a Building Million 60 t £35.1M Warrant in quarter 1 of 2017 was £26.1 million. Cost of Building Works s 40 £26.1M o £22.4M This was 16.8% higher than the figure in the same requiring building warrant c 20 quarter a year before (£22.4 million). Q1 2017 was, in Q1 2017 0 however, 25.6% lower than the same quarter in 2015.

• There were 456 applications for a Building Warrant and amendment to a Building Warrant *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 between January and March 2017. lesser extent). For the same reason, it is impractical to treat these values as directly comparable with other reported figures.

Planning Applications in Perth & Kinross Planning Applications Registered Applications Determined Applications 600 • The number of new Planning Applications submitted to Perth & Kinross 500 Council and validated increased to 478 in the first quarter of 2017; this was 478 506 5.5% above the 453 in the same quarter a year earlier. 400 453 300 363 • The number of determined applications at 506 was at a significantly higher 200 level than the previous year’s figure of 363. 100 0 Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016 Q1 2017

Source: Perth & Kinross Council PERTH & KINROSS ECONOMIC

Labour Market Perth City Centre Business Housing Market

April 2017 April JOURNAL

Please note the data reported in this section are not comparable to data published previously in Economic Journal or other Council publications. This is due to the change in the source for the data, effective from the current issue.

Average Residential Property Prices '' House Prices (Latest data available: February 2017) January 2015 - February 2017 'Scotland' • There was a marginal drop in average house prices in February 2017 in Perth & Kinross, £200,000 with the average residential property price of £173,639. This gure was £34,818 above the Scottish average. £150,000

• Average Perth & Kinross house prices were 8th highest among local authority areas in £100,000 Scotland. £50,000 • The largest annual increase in house prices in Scotland was in Shetland Islands (25.9%), and the highest drop, in Aberdeen (-9.6%). £0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 ------5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Average House Price (All Types) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 £173,639 £138,821 Perth & Kinross Scotland 103.06 = Perth & Kinross House Price Index, Housing Market in Perth & Kinross February 2017 by Volume of Sales, January 2015 - December 2016 (100 = January 2015) 400 d l o

S 300 s Market Volume (Latest data available: December 2016) e i t

r 200 e • 259 houses sold in Perth & Kinross area in December 2016, compared p o r 100 to 238 in the same month a year earlier. P

f o

. 0 • Houses sold in Perth & Kinross accounted for 3.1% of the housing o

N stock sales in Scotland. Source: UK HPI (ONS)