Monthly Archives: March 2012

Mar 31

Bradford West screams out for jobs

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By Colin Crooks

The warnings have been there for anyone to see.  Last December the Yorkshire Post screamed out “One-third of Bradfordhomes hit by lifetime of no work” it went to explain, “The latest figures for 24 constituencies across the region show that in Bradford West almost one-third of households contain someone who has not worked.”  Later the BBC told us “The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) in the Bradford West constituency has risen almost 33% to 4,926 over the last year”

While levels of deprivation have been climbing across the country, Bradford’s has been climbing fastest.  In less than 3 years, Bradford has slipped 6 places to 26th most deprived authority in England   Now more than 44% of  its population live (or 222,000) in its poorest areas   16000 more people than in 2007.

When nearly a quarter of a million people live in very deprived areas it will come as no surprise to see that Bradford ranks 5th and 6th in terms of lowest income and lowest levels of employment inEngland.

Yet, in contrast,Bradfordhas nearly 30,000 people who live in the least deprived areas of the country.  In fact, Bradford has the widest gulf between rich and poor inEngland.

When such levels of entrenched and indeed growing deprivation live cheek by jowl with wealth and prosperity it can hardly be surprising that people want to see things change and want to hear fresh ideas aimed at helping them.

The government continues to pursue what I call a supply side policy on employment.  It insists that its Work Programme will give unemployed people the skills and motivation they need to get a job.  This has been the mantra of every government for decades now – essentially, they seem to be saying that if the unemployed pick themselves up and get new skills they will walk into a job.  Really?

Let us face the facts.  I accept that many unemployed people have very low skill levels.  But, assuming we could help them all reskill, what jobs will they do?  In the autumn, Bradfordhad 2700 registered job vacancies.  There were 17,000 registered unemployed.  Add to them the number of people who want to work but can’t register and those who want full-time rather than part-time work, to allow them to make ends meet, and you get at least 2.5 times that figure.  So, in reality more than 40,000 people are chasing those 2700 vacancies.  No wonder we regularly hear stories of 50 or even a 100 people applying for each job vacancy!

We need a radical new approach and we need one quickly.  We need to create jobs that people with low skills can do.  Once they have a job we can work with them to build their skills.  As social entrepreneur, I can see hundreds of opportunities to create real jobs that provide real services for local people.  Jobs in maintenance, social care, education, health and even in entertainment.  As I have researched my new book – coming out in the summer – it has become obvious that the main barrier to creating such jobs is not the energy of the local people or their lack of skills.  It is not even money – it is something far more insidious.

At the heart of the problem of entrenched unemployment in specific areas is the obsession with “efficiency” – of getting the lowest price at the least risk.  The result is that large, highly capitalised firms get the contracts to deliver local services that do not employ local people.  The money is clearly there as government (local and national) spend millions in areas such as Bradford West.  The challenge is to help local people find better ways of spending it, which benefits them.

Until we can offer something more tangible to the millions of workless people be prepared for more electoral turbulence.

 

Mar 27

Will new planning guidance shepherd Britain back to work?

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Will new planning guidance help Britain get back to work? by Colin Crooks

Today the government will announce its simplification of the planning system.  There will rightly be a huge debate about whether or not our most precious landscapes will be put under more development pressure.  There will be another debate about the place of the high street in our national daily life.

One issue, perhaps the biggest single issue that we face as a society, will be strangely absent.  There will be no comment at all, I suspect, on whether these new rules will help the long–term unemployed or the workless in our society.

The driver for these changes is a flawed and over simplistic analysis of our international competitiveness.  As a result, the policy is likely to encourage investments that produce little or no benefit to our competitiveness abroad and actually divert investment from the people and communities who most need it.

 

Proponents of the international competitiveness argument tell us that theUKis too expensive and cannot compete.  Partly they tell us, this is due to high land values caused by planning constraints that restrict development of green field land.  However, as Adair Turner points out in his book “Just Capital” people in advanced western economies consume an increasing proportion of their income on labour intensive services and that  the wealth generated from exports reduces as a proportion of national income.  In simple terms, you cannot export a haircut and you cannot import a hedge trimming service.

And when it comes to exports, the elements that have the most value are the intellectual creativity and the engineering skill.  These are not dependent on the cost of land but rather on the quality of the workforces’ education and the intellectual atmosphere in which people work.

This distorted view of competitiveness seems to be supported in the new planning rules. It will lead us to an increase in green field development for services that are not exposed to international competition.  Yes, it may allow out of town retailers to reduce their costs, but who will benefit from that – the consumer?  the environment?

All the while, that green field investment opportunities are preferred the people who need investment most will be left behind.  The vast majority of the millions of our unemployed people live in the inner cities.  The brownfield areas are the places that require investment.  By investments, I do not mean shiny new retail parks that simply displace employment from the high street.  Brownfield areas require investments in businesses that can create new jobs that are in tune with the skills and talents of the people who live there.  Jobs in businesses that provide real services that local people need and want.

Unfortunately, such bread and butter concerns are very far from the priorities of those who shout for greater flexibility and the removal of restrictions in the name of international competitiveness.

Mar 20

“It’s all about the money” Local and small is key to reducing unemployment

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I found the BBC Economy Debate last week very frustrating.  In its discussion of unemployment the entire focus (until that is, the last 5 minutes) was effectively on how big business and or big finance would create the wealth and jobs that London would need to stay vibrant in the future. Says Colin Crooks

On creating jobs we heard how the City was an enormous provider of jobs in the capital and how it could, if unfettered, create even more jobs.  We heard how Westfield in Stratford had created thousands of jobs via established retail brands.  On job losses, we heard about firms like Ford reducing their operations in Dagenham and we were told that manufacturing inLondonhad declined from a heady 40% of employment in the 50s to below 5% now.

Aside from the maverick interventions from one small businessman on the panel, there was nothing in the debate to suggest thatLondon’s true heart is in it small businesses and its social enterprises.  You could be forgiven for thinking that the entrepreneurial heart had gone out of Londoners and that unless a big corporation was prepared to create jobs nothing was going to happen.

So, when Evan Davies showed a video of disaffected youngsters in Dagenham bemoaning the lack of jobs any viewer would have been struck by an all-encompassing sense of helplessness.  Manufacturing is dead, finance and retail gravitate to where the money is and the poorer parts ofLondonare beyond hope.

Exciting new high tech entrepreneurs were glimpsed as one way of stirring growth inLondon.  And I’m sure they will – for those people with the skills and education that can grasp those opportunities.  Still nothing though, to raise hope in the depressed inner city areas of London (such as Tower Hamlets and Newham) where unemployment is as bad as the worst black spots outside of London such as Hull and Birmingham.  For it is no coincidence that these same areas have some of the lowest levels of education attainment inBritain.

Then finally, we got a brief flash of grass roots inspiration, of real Londonflare.  Active Change Foundation showed us what young people can really do and how business can work to solve the real everyday issues that people face.

With some help and guidance, six young people have set up a social business, Exterminators, that provides pest control to some of the worst estates in eastLondon.  Residents like the service and the business is starting to grow.  When Evan asked one of the young people a question about what he would be doing instead he replied, “I’d need to get money somehow – legally or illegally – it’s all about the money!”

Yes its all about the money – but not how much but where it goes.  At the moment, councils and large companies spend their money with equally large organisations who can speak their language.  Precious little of this money is spent with small businesses in the locality.  If councils and others spent even a few percent of their money with business like Exterminators, we would see unemployment in even the hardest hit places come down.