The Impact of the Growth Agenda

Chris Cardy: IDeA Principal ConsultantAbid Hussain: Milton KeynesWednesday 27th February 2008

Objectives

• Understanding the growth agenda• How growth impacts on local communities• Cohesion hotspot issues and how to resolve them• The Milton Keynes story• A practical exercise

What do we mean by the growth agenda?• Projected expansion of the economy• Creation of new jobs• National housing targets• Population increase

Some statistics

• South East – 10% population growth 2003-2021• Road traffic in South East set to increase by more than one

third over next 20 years• Airport expansion – Heathrow, Gatwick, Southampton

99.5m passengers 2004, by 2015 130m passengers• South East average house price risen 450% since 1983• East of England number of households forecast to rise by

half a million by 2021• Growth areas: London, Thames Gateway, Milton

Keynes/South Midlands, Ashford, Londons-Stanstead-Cambridge

• Since 2004 rapid increase in A8 (EU Accession States) migration from 20,000 in 2003/04 to 77,000 in 2004/05 to 74,000 in 2005/06

What is the impact of the growth agenda?• Affordable housing• Infrastructure needs of local populations

-transport-health-education-council services

• Quality of life indicators• Pockets of deprivation in regions which don’t get the focus

they need eg over 400 000 deprived people living in South East, 2.2m economically inactive

What is the impact on cohesion of communities?• Strain on local resources leads to tension and issues around

access• Potential arrival of migrant workers – integration• Demographic change – young vs old• Income and affordability gap – haves and have nots• Deprivation pockets• Skills shortages

How do you respond?

• Local authority has primary role as place shaper• Working in partnership• Know your communities – mapping tools, need good stats• Providing everyone with opportunities – filling skills gaps• Having a long term vision for the area which is not silo

service driven but driven by place shaping• Sub regional working to bid for resources• Officers need to talk to each other – cohesion is not just the

job of the community cohesion officer, place shaping is not only the role of planners

• Cohesion delivery is not just the job of the council – ie access to GP facilities could cause cohesion issues

Being a Place Shaper

• Place shaping is about councils making the right links across key functions, i.e. housing, planning, economic development, regeneration, transport;

• Focusing these on quality of life outcomes – health, prosperity, education etc

• Understanding the needs and preferences of local people & local communities;

• Developing a strategic vision through the Sustainable Community Strategy;

• Pulling together partners to secure local delivery, through LSP and LAA.

Case studies

Mapping• Blackburn with Darwen BC: resource mapping exercise that

matched resources spent on particular themes against wards• North Somerset: used questionnaires to develop community

profiles of parts of their area

Migration Issues• Peterborough: New Link Services which bring together

statutory and voluntary partners to help integrate new arrivals into the area

• Slough: Commissioned new migrant study in 2006 to get reliable data about migrant population changes and needs of this community

Young People• Bristol: school twinning exercise to build better

understanding between youths from different backgrounds• Spelthorne BC: worked through its LSP to develop a project

promoting good relations between young and old people. The young people taught the older people IT skills, and the older people shared their personal experiences with the young people which they used to perform drama pieces

Milton KeynesAbid Hussain

Practical Exercise

• Consider the scenarios

• What could be some of the potential cohesion

issues arising from the scenario

• How would you work with other officers/partners

to resolve them

And finally

• Further informationwww.idea.gov.uk (Integrating new migrants

packs)www.coventry.ac.uk/icoco www.communities.gov.ukwww.homeoffice.gov.uk/

• Thanks for taking part