Introduction

6.1

A thriving and diverse local economy is an essential part of efforts to stem population decline and tackle Knowsley’s remaining problems of deprivation and social exclusion. It is important to provide a good range of employment land and buildings to meet the differing needs of employers, small and large, new and long established, local and multinational.  This should help to create a variety of different jobs, accessible to a wide range of people with different skills. It is important also to ensure that they are in locations which are easily accessible by public transport, and that local people have the skills to take the jobs which are provided.  The Council aims to deliver the former through land use planning and the latter through education and training in collaboration with public and private sector partners.

The Economy of Knowsley

6.2

Over 2,000 firms are based in Knowsley. 25.6% of jobs in Knowsley are based on manufacturing compared to 15.1% in the North West and 13.4% nationally, while 68.1% of jobs are in the growing service sector compared to 79.1% in the North West and 80.4% nationally (Annual Business Inquiry employee analysis, 2002). Major international companies include Ford Jaguar, Kodak, BASF, QVC, Delphi Delco Automotive Systems, and Baker Petrolite. The Borough also boasts a large pool of labour, highly competitive land values and low business rates, good communications facilities, and access to a range of European Union and UK funding regimes.

6.3

The main industrial areas in Knowsley include: the Ford Jaguar plant at Halewood; Knowsley Industrial Park; Huyton Business Park and the Pirelli (formerly BICC Cables) complex in Prescot. Knowsley Business Park has been developed as a high quality location for growing businesses in a landscaped setting, and work has commenced at Kings Business Park, Kings Business Park is identified in this chapter as a Regional Investment Site, reflecting its status as a strategic regional site in the North West Development Agency’s Regional Economic Strategy 2003.

Current Issues

 6.4

Over recent years significant progress has been made in tackling the legacy of economic decline from the 1970s and 1980s. Over 4,500 jobs have been created in new developments since 1995, and the Council and its partners have carried out significant work in upgrading the environment of the industrial areas in Knowsley. However, a number of significant issues remain as follows:

•  The Borough has an under representation of growth industries, such as information and communications technology, biotechnology, financial and professional services and creative industries;

•  The unemployment rate (at 4.0% - see footnote¹) is higher than the average for Merseyside as a whole (3.7%), and is significantly higher than the North West and national averages (2.4% and 2.3% respectively).  Male unemployment is approximately three times the female rate (6.2% and 1.9% respectively) and a high percentage of unemployment claimants are under 25 years of age (34.0%). Second and third generation unemployment is not unusual;

•  Unemployment is particularly high in certain areas; Cantril Farm ward (now known as Stockbridge) has a rate of 8.3%, while Princess ward has a rate of 7.3% (see footnote ²) (over three times the North West average); and

•  The number of people claiming Incapacity Benefit (IB) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) was more than two and a half times the number of people claiming Job Seekers Allowance in 2001, with rates for claiming IB and DLA both over twice the national average.  IB and DLA claimants generally cannot work full time and this illustrates that the amount of non-employed people in Knowsley is larger than the Job Seekers Allowance rate.

Tackling the issues

 6.5

The Council intends to strengthen the local economy by promoting new employment generating uses, particularly within the target growth sectors identified by the North West Development Agency’s Regional Economic Strategy (2003), and by meeting the needs of established employers. The Council has identified the following priorities and needs:

•  To provide more high quality sites and premises;

•  To improve “gateways” to the Borough and transport corridors;

•  To implement physical regeneration strategies for the Industrial Parks, incorporating improvements to the landscape, provision of services to development sites, better security, and improvement/remediation of vacant sites;

•  To improve and provide new tourism and leisure facilities; and

•  To improve business start up rates and create a more vibrant enterprise culture; and

•  To improve public transport linkages between employment areas and non-employment areas to improve access to jobs for those without cars and to encourage use of more sustainable forms of transport for those currently using cars.

Key Economic Sectors and “cluster” developments

6.6

Key economic sectors, identified by the North West Development Agency in the Regional (Economic) Strategy (2000)³, are now listed in the Regional Spatial Strategy for the North West. These sectors include

•  Established target sectors, which are important because of their existing scale and contribution to the regional economy, and

•  Target growth industries, which have the greatest potential for growth.

The sites identified in this chapter of the UDP are capable of meeting the likely need for the former to expand or relocate to more appropriate premises and to attract the latter to the Borough.

6.7

The update of the Regional (Economic) Strategy, published in 2003, encouraged the provision of clusters.  Clusters are geographically concentrated groups of industries that trade with each other or which share the same infrastructure, customers or skills base and whose linkages enhance competitive advantage. This critical mass provides the right operating environment for growth companies and provides opportunities for new start-up companies and inward investment.  The industries which are suitable for cluster development are identified below in figure 6.1. An opportunity for cluster development in Knowsley exists with the Jaguar plant in Halewood and the possibility of attracting suppliers to Knowsley.  Potential provision for this is made with the allocation of land adjacent to the factory for employment use.

TABLE 6.1

Source: North West Development Agency Regional (Economic) Strategy (2000) cited in the Regional Spatial Strategy for the North West (March 2003) and Regional (Economic) Strategy 2003.

6.8

The Knowsley Managed Workspace Study 2002identified a need for more managed workspace schemes.  These should include the provision of more small workshop units of up to 200 square metres, a major new managed workspace scheme of up to 8,370 sq metres to be located in the Huyton/Prescot Strategic Investment Area, and two new neighbourhood centres of up to 1860 sq metres each at the Ravenscourt centre in Halewood and in North Huyton New Deal for Communities area. Such schemes are designed to help smaller businesses by providing a variety of sizes of centrally managed offices and light industrial units for rent on flexible leases, often with maintenance, 24 hour security, shared secretarial services and business advice included.

6.9

A number of existing plans, programmes and strategies will assist in dealing with these issues, including:

•  The Objective 1 and Single Regeneration Budget programmes (see chapter 2 – “Key Issues and Influences”);

•  The emerging “New Approaches” strategy (in partnership with the North West Development Agency) under which funding will be made available for the treatment of derelict, under-used or neglected sites in “gateway” locations for soft end uses;

•  The A580 Corridor Improvement Strategy;

•  The Council’s Financial Assistance to Industry programme, under which businesses can apply for funding for works such as security fencing and improvements to buildings; and

• The Local Transport Plan and projects contained within it, particularly Lines One and Two of Merseytram.

¹ All unemployment figures given are the Jobseekers Allowance claimant rate. Source:  NOMIS, July 2004. 

² This information is only available based on the old Knowsley ward boundaries (dating before the re-organisation of the Boroughs wards in 2003).

³ The Regional (Economic) Strategy (RES) was published by the North West Development Agency in 2000.  The RES was updated in 2003, with certain changes such as a change in emphasis from supporting established business (target) sectors and growth target sectors to a strategy for encouraging clusters of businesses. The Regional Spatial Strategy for the North West (published in 2003) was adopted in March 2003, and supports key economic sectors and clusters.

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