Investing in skills will boost deprived communities

Many in the regeneration world are clearly frustrated at where we’ve got to after nearly ten years of the present government. How should deprivation in urban communities be best tackled: centrally, regionally or locally? Should the focus be on jobs, or enterprise, or bricks-and-mortar infrastructure? What should be left to the market, and where is government intervention best targeted?

It’s three decades since decline in traditional industries such as coal and shipbuilding first created modern mass unemployment, accelerated by closure of steel and car-making (themselves often inappropriately located due to earlier attempts at state intervention). It seems we’re still trying to find the right policy mix.

For politicians themselves, one lesson is that detailed intervention at national level is too big and remote, while the local level is small scale and still too variable in quality. So the regional agenda urgently needs addressing, especially given the loss of political momentum after the northeast voted down greater devolved powers.

For professionals, one lesson is that fundamentally one must go with the grain of the market, modulating it, not defying it. Riding that tiger successfully means equipping people with needed skills: Prince’s Trust-type activity remains essential, though NEF is right to remind us (slightly from left field!) that jobs aren’t everything, skills are.

For CSR managers, one lesson is that change in business is inevitable and continuous. Whether it is factories, call centres or local branches, there is a right and wrong way to manage change. Done well, the long-term outcome can be positive. Too many simply shrug their shoulders and blame the global economy. Boots and others point to a different, and better, way.

Related news

Devising a national strategy

The UK government needs a national framework to join together its wide range of regeneration programmes and economic initiatives, according to the British Urban Regeneration Association. The BURA Steering and Development Forum, whose partners include HBOS, Tesco and Taylor Woodrow, published Towards a National Strategy for Regeneration on May 16, shortly after the government announced a review of the institutional structure for the delivery of its housing and regeneration programmes in April.

Jon Ladd, chief executive of BURA said: “Although there is a plethora of regeneration programmes and initiatives at a national, regional and local level, they tend to work in isolation from each other.”
The report recommends that a national strategy be drawn up in consultation with regeneration practitioners across the country. It is also called for the government to take a holistic approach to regeneration, which acknowledges and includes the role of the voluntary and community sectors. Contact Clare Webber, BURA 020 7539 4036 www.bura.org.uk

Focused approach needed

Government attempts to boost business activity in deprived areas have had disappointing results, according to City Markets, an Institute for Public Policy Research research programme into the influences on business location and investment decisions in UK inner city areas. The IPPR’s Centre for Cities looked at the relative roles of economic drivers and policy initiatives affecting these decisions in 88 of England’s most deprived areas.

Speaking at the launch of City Markets report on June 19, Dermot Finch, director of the centre, said that the findings would “help the government target its cash on the business deprived areas that can support new businesses and jobs over the long-term”. So far, the government has tried to boost enterprise in all deprived areas, not all of which can sustain more jobs and businesses.

The report sets out six principles for interventions in business-deprived areas. These included the need to intervene only where market failures exist; improving local market intelligence; and focusing less on start-ups and more on employment. Contact Meghan Benton, Centre for Cities 020 7470 6167 www.ippr.org/centreforcities

All party to the matter

The British Property Federation, whose members include British Land, Credit Suisse and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, is supporting the launch of an All Party Parliamentary Group on Urban Development on July 19, in partnership with the Institute for Public Policy Research’s Centre for Cities. It will be a forum for MPs and Peers with an interest in urban renewal and sustainable development. The group will hold a series of hearings this autumn. Contact Meghan Benton, Centre for Cities 020 7470 6167
www.ippr.org/centreforcities

Making a fresh start

Investment in regeneration plays an essential role in mitigating the long-term socio-economic impact of job losses, suggests an 18-month study of the closure of a Boots factory in Scotland.

Moving On? Corporate Social Responsibility in Practice: Lessons from the Boots Airdrie Factory Closure was published by the Scottish Council Foundation on June 21. The study was commissioned following the closure of a Boots factory in Airdrie, Lanarkshire after over 50 years of manufacturing presence in the town, which resulted in the loss of around 800 jobs.

The study examined the factory closure in three phases – redundancy, resettlement and regeneration, comparing it with factory closures by other companies including J&B, Motorola, Diageo and NEC.

Boots was found to have outperformed most companies on all three phases, but according to the survey, it was its £3.95m investment in the regeneration phase that produced the biggest difference. The company “invested substantial sums in regeneration companies”, allowing land assets and investment by public agencies to be pooled to attract new sources of private investment. Contact Scottish Council Foundation 0131 225 4709 www.scottishcouncilfoundation.org

Build me up

Amec, BAA, Balfour Beatty and ICI are among the companies implementing a pilot project to help young people develop their practical skills and find employment in the construction industry. Building Better Lives is an initiative spearheaded by the Prince’s Trust and the members of its Construction and Business Services Leadership Group.

The six-week course will provide people between the ages of 16 and 25 with the skills they need to get a job or an apprenticeship. Those who pass the course will earn an apprenticeship placement and six months of support from a Prince’s Trust advisor.

The programme has two goals – to open up opportunities for young people and to address the skills shortage the construction industry faces. Contact Frank Stokes, AMEC 01789 208 477 www.amec.com

Employment isn’t everything

Unemployed people receiving state benefits may be contributing valuable services to their community through voluntary work, recent research from the New Economics Foundation suggests.

Co-production by people outside paid employment, published on June 27, says that if the government focuses on full paid employment as its ultimate goal, people who currently provide vital work in their communities on a voluntary basis, such as helping to run local playgroups or community projects, may be forced into inflexible low-paid work, resulting in fewer positive benefits for their neighbourhoods. Contact David Boyle, nef 020 7820 6300
www.neweconomics.org