DRAFT Gloucestershire First 26 April 07 THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE URBAN ECONOMIC STRATEGY 2007-2015 INTRODUCTION 1. Urban Gloucestershire lies astride the M5 and is made up of Gloucester City, Cheltenham Borough and parts of the Borough of Tewkesbury and Stroud District. With a total population of 310,800 and forecast by 2026 to be at least 370,800 this is a significant urban conurbation particularly in regional terms, as evidenced by the identification of Gloucester and Cheltenham in the draft Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) as two of the regionally Strategically Significant Cities and Towns (SSCTs)1. Within the Gloucestershire economy this urban area plays a vital role. Defining Urban Gloucestershire Urban Gloucestershire cannot be delineated precisely on a map without limiting some initiatives unnecessarily. In general it is those geographical areas of the Central Vale that have a concentration of people and businesses that by working together can complement one another and increase the economy of Gloucestershire. It therefore includes the whole of Gloucester City and Cheltenham Borough. It also will generally include, within Tewkesbury Borough, Tewkesbury Town and Ashchurch as well as the parishes of Brockworth, Hucclecote, Churchdown, Innsworth, Longford and embraces Gloucestershire Airport and Dowty/Smiths, although there are some aspects of these that are also 'rural' and will also be covered by the Gloucestershire Rural Economic Strategy. Similarly it will also generally include in Stroud District the settlements of Hardwicke and those others that comprise the defined Stroud Urban Area: Stonehouse, Stroud, Thrupp, North and South Woodchester and Nailsworth, although parts of these are also 'rural'. Economic and administrative boundaries are not identical. 2. Geographically, urban Gloucestershire is well placed. The Regional Economic Strategy2 describes the ‘North East Triangle’, which covers Bristol, Swindon, Gloucester and Cheltenham as a ‘functional economic zone’. In reality urban Gloucestershire is at the centre of an area that includes Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, city regions of international and national significance, Oxford, Swindon and to some extent London (which is only one and half hours away). It has the potential to exploit this pivotal location by providing services and support to these major economies. It has excellent road and rail communications in all directions except the south east3, with both the M5 and the Bristol to Birmingham main rail line running through the centre. Gloucestershire Airport is used for executive travel. 3. The two main centres in urban Gloucestershire, Gloucester and Cheltenham are only 9 miles apart, with an area of Green Belt in Tewkesbury Borough in between. These two centres have different histories, Gloucester was a Roman town, controlling the lowest crossing point on the River Severn, whilst Cheltenham owes most of its growth to the discovery of spa waters in Regency times. Stroud was the centre of a thriving woollen industry and retains much of the tradition and industrial architecture of the 19th Century, whilst Tewkesbury Abbey is one of the finest Norman buildings in England and the second largest parish church in the country. There is one university, The University of Gloucestershire, two Further Education Colleges and a number of highly successful schools. Collectively urban Gloucestershire contains a wide variety of businesses, particularly in the key economic sectors of advanced engineering/manufacturing and finance & business services, skills and attractions that mean that it has the potential to compete economically in a global environment. 4. On the other hand there are problems, some of which unless addressed will become more severe and constrain the economy. There are significant areas of deprivation including six Super Output 1 The draft RSS describes SSCTs as “places where cultural facilities and a wide range of services fundamental to residents quality of life are found, where clusters of economic activity will arise in future and where the requirements of individuals to travel can be catered for by better and more reliable public transport. These are also key places in the region with the potential to achieve significant development sustainably.” (Para 3.1.1 of the Draft RSS) 2 Regional Economic Strategy for South West England 2006-2015 3 The road and rail communications to Swindon and London are adversely affected by the bottlenecks on the A419 at Nettleton Bottom, and the 15-mile single-track railway line between Kemble and Swindon. 1 DRAFT Gloucestershire First 26 April 07 Areas (SOAs)4, in the national top 10% of ‘Most Deprived SOAs’. There is already a shortage of workspace to enable the economy to grow. There are current economic initiatives in urban Gloucestershire, most notably the major regeneration of Gloucester under the Gloucester Heritage Urban Regeneration Company (GHURC), the Cotswold Canals Project through Stroud and the Civic Pride scheme in Cheltenham. CONTEXT 5. National Context. The Government published ‘Towards an Urban Renaissance’, its Urban White Paper in 2000. This was followed in March 2006 by a major report ‘The State of the English Cities’, an examination of 56 English urban communities. The Government then published in October 2006 ‘Strong & Prosperous Communities’, its Local Government White Paper, which announced the intention to promote the concept of city development companies for English cities and city-regions and outlined the measures the Government intends to take to create “effective, accountable and responsive local government”. This in turn was followed in December 2006 by the announcement by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on ‘The Role of City Development Companies in English Cities’. Within the next few months the Government is expected to publish further policies to deal with climate change and globalisation, some elements of which may need to be incorporated in this Strategy. 6. Regional Context. The Consultation Draft of the Regional Spatial Strategy proposes concentrating the majority of future development in Strategically Significant Cities and Towns (SSCTs), which include both Gloucester and Cheltenham. At the same time there has been a steady move towards the regionalisation of public structures such as the Learning & Skills Councils and Business Links. 7. The State of English Cities. In its Urban White Paper of 2000, ‘Towards an Urban Renaissance’, the Government made a commitment to commission a report on the progress and performance of English Cities after 5 years. ‘The State of English Cities’5 is a major report of nearly 450 pages but is not purely economic; it covers both social and environmental issues as well, based on an examination of 56 English cities. Gloucester is one of these the, but the findings equally apply to Cheltenham, although there is no ‘best’ city; some do better than others in one criteria but the reverse is true in another. There are few, if any, conclusions that apply to all cities but there are some pointers, which are relevant to the development of an urban economic strategy. These are: “Cities matter; there has been a major change and they are now seen increasingly ‘as the dynamos of national and regional economies’” (para 1.2.1). “The export base of a city has a key influence on the performance of its economy” (para 4.1.3). “Competitive advantage depends on creating and attracting a highly educated and skilled workforce” (para 4.1.3). “The socio-cultural assets of a city are an important source of competitive advantage, shaping its attractiveness to educated and creative people” (para 4.1.3). “The strategic decision-making capacity of a city also affects its competitiveness, particularly through its mechanisms of economic governance” (para 4.1.3). “Innovative capacity is the most significant basis of productivity and competitiveness – the crucial factor in the ability of an urban economy to compete is its adaptive capacity and how easily innovations are diffused around the relevant firms and sectors in the locality” (para 4.5.5). “The importance of a highly qualified workforce as a prerequisite to compete among the knowledge driven economies can hardly be over-emphasised”(para 4.5.7). “Clustered specialisation combined with diversity has been the basis of the comparative economic success of many of the top performing cities” (para 4.5.8). “Connectivity, both internal and external, is critically important for successful cities. This takes many forms including physical road, rail and air connections, electronic telecommunications, and possibly even more important, business networks” (para 4.5.9). “Material conditions are fundamental to social cohesion, particularly employment, income, health, education and housing” (para 5.1.2). 4 SOAs are smaller than wards, containing 1,000-3,000 people. The Index of Multiple Deprivation measures income, employment, health deprivation & disability, education, skills and training deprivation, barriers to housing & services, crime and living environment and is used to compare SOAs nationally and locally. 5 State of the English Cities Volumes 1 & 2 March 2006 OPDM. 2 DRAFT Gloucestershire First 26 April 07 “Liveability6 is important and its importance has been rising, with the public placing a greater emphasis on local environmental quality” (para 6.7.1). “One message for English cities is that their counterparts in Europe are convinced that to be competitive in the global marketplace in future they have