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Economic Development Update

Policy and Resources Panel

14 July 2009

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• State of the Hertfordshire Economy

• Hertfordshire Works

• Emerging Vision

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National Context – mixed message

• Bank of England

• Purchasing Managers Index

• British Chamber of Commerce

• Lending

• Housing

• Commercial Property

• Construction Output

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Hertfordshire• Unemployment ILO Definition

- 5% (estimate May 2009)

- 3.7% (June 2008)

- 10% (early 1990s)

• East of England 6%

• UK 7.2%

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Claimant Count

May 2009 19657 3%

May 2008 8234 1.2%

• Stevenage 4.3%

• Sales & Customer Service

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Vacancies

May 2009 2992

April 2009 2868

March 2009 3013

May 2008 5625

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Young People NEETs

- May 2009 5.5%

- May 2008 4.5%

• Particularly 18 year olds

• Stevenage 40% higher than County average

• Learning rate up to 82.7% from 80.5% last year

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Redundancies

- 700 Jan – May 2009

- 900 expected over the next 9 months

- All sectors, all locations

- 2/3 of redundancies are in companies employing less than 100 staff

- Job levels unlikely to be regained until 2015

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Housing

- Average house price in Hertfordshire £276,300

- Nationally £197,000

- House prices fallen 14.8% from April 2008-09

- Housing completions

2008/09 3563

2007/08 4271

2006/07 4345

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Hertfordshire Works

£4m PRG through ‘Recession to Recovery Programme’- £480k already allocated to additional funding to CABX

for 5 specialist debt advisers

- £800k for Apprenticeships

- £300k for skills training for SME’s and social enterprise

- £500k capital for local shopping centres improvement fund

- £200k for Business Retention and Inward Investment

- £1.5m capital for Incubation Centre

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• Inward Investment Manager appointed

• Future Jobs Fund bid to Central Government for 200 apprenticeships for young people who are long term unemployed

• Business Advisory Groups in place

• SME Procurement and Supply Chain Initiative

• Olympics Legacy / Waltham Cross Renaissance Group

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A fresh economic vision for Hertfordshire

- Visioning Workshop 6 July 2009

- Draft Strategy by Hertfordshire Forward Conference November 2009

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STRENGTHS

- Varied Economy

- Skilled Workforce

- Proximity to London

- Quality of life

WEAKNESSES

- Weak brand/mixed messages

- Infrastructure

- High cost of Housing

- Pockets of economic disadvantage

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OPPORTUNITIES

- Build on Clusters

- Nurture SMEs

- Green Jobs

- Olympics

THREATS

- Slow recovery

- Loss of competitive advantage

- Poor quality jobs

- Congestion

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Emerging Vision

• VARIED & RESILIENT ECONOMY- Diverse, not over reliant on few sectors or

multinationals- Building on our strengths – pharmaceuticals,

hi-tech engineering, communications & media

- Retaining existing firms & encouraging them to grow

- Supporting SMEs- Promoting entrepreneurs

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• QUALITY JOBS

- High Wages, skilled jobs

- Knowledge intensive

- Personal Services

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• QUALITY LOCATIONS

- Key sites

- Flexible development briefs

- Sustainable development

- Unlocking Infrastructure

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• WELL SKILLED WORKFORCE

- Skills for the future

- Linked to what employers want

- Apprenticeships from work experience to graduates

- Key to addressing inequalities

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• INNOVATIVE AND NETWORKED

- Optimising our clusters

- Strong supply chains and networks

- Strong business engagement

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• STRONG OFFER & IDENTITY

- Clear Brand

- Culture of ‘Yes’

- Inward Investment Portal and Support

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• ‘SMART’ GOVERNMENT

- Advocacy

- Clear standards

- Appropriate interventions