We want housing AND jobs

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"…Recent research conducted by IPSOS MORI (2012) found that local residents overwhelmingly wanted the council to help create new employment opportunities and support business development." [Draft Local Plan 3.18]

"…The survey [MORI 20120] also reinforced the importance of local economic growth for local people. When asked about economic issues, the majority (69%) considered there to be insufficient employment opportunities in the area while a higher level (85%) said more should be done to help businesses set up in the area. The research also found many local people (68%) would support the building of new homes if it helped to create jobs by attracting people and businesses to the area." [Draft Local Plan 3.28]

What residents said to the Council is that we want jobs and that we'll support housing if it creates jobs. What we're getting in the Plan is just housing and no strategy for creating jobs. 

No economic strategy for jobs

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In drawing up local plans, local planning authorities should: 

• set out a clear economic vision and strategy for their area which positively and proactively encourage sustainable economic growth; 
• set criteria, or identify strategic sites, for local and inward investment to match the strategy and to meet anticipated needs over the plan period; 
• support existing business sectors, taking account of whether they are expanding or contracting and, where possible, identify and plan for new or emerging sectors likely to locate in their area. Policies should be flexible enough to accommodate needs not anticipated in the plan and to allow a rapid response to changes in economic circumstances; 
• plan positively for the location, promotion and expansion of clusters or networks of knowledge driven, creative or high technology industries; 
• identify priority areas for economic regeneration, infrastructure provision and environmental enhancement; and facilitate flexible working practices such as the integration of residential and commercial uses within the same unit.
• [Draft Local Plan 3.5]

We can find no economic plan in the Local Plan that sets out how the Council will attract enough employers to Herne Bay to soak up thousands more job-seekers. We already have above average unemployment in Heron ward. The explosion in housing planned for Herne Bay can only make it worse.

"…Generally the private sector and key growth sectors are under-represented in the local economy, which instead continues to rely upon a few consumption driven, low-value added sectors and the publicly funded sector." [Draft Local Plan 3.14]

We have low value jobs locally, and not enough employment in growth sectors. We can see nothing in this Plan that sets out how the Council will resolve this for our town. It looks as if the Council's plan is to have people live near Herne Bay and commute in their droves to Canterbury.

Flawed logic

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“…the district’s Development Requirements Study (Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners, 2011). This provided a range of scenarios for future development in the area. It found that, in order to increase the labour supply and to support new job creation in the district, a significant level of new housing was required (15,600 to support the creation of 6,500 new jobs), and that an additional 96,775sqm of employment floor space would be required to meet the anticipated needs of businesses through the Plan period.” [Draft Local Plan 3.26]

We think this is fundamentally flawed. The Council is assuming that if it builds lots of houses, employers will move to be near them and the new population. If employers really did move to be near pools of unemployed people, there would be no areas struggling with high and long-term unemployment.

In addition, let’s look at the calculation here: 15,600 new homes, each of them being multi-bedroomed and so having more than one person; just 6,500 wishful new jobs; that’s just four jobs for every ten homes. On that basis, what we would be creating here with this housing explosion is massive unemployment.

Leader's fury at jobs cuts query

Mail plan would mean closure for sorting office

HB Times 30th Sep 2010

Unemployment in Herne Bay

HB Gazette 9th September 2010