12 March 2018

Mr Andrew Barratt-Miles

Chairman of the Environment, Communities & Fire Select Committee

Dear Andrew,

Environment, Communities and Fire Select Committee: Economic Growth Strategy 2018 – 2023

Thank you for the Committee’s recommendations and comments on the Economic Growth Strategy 2018-2023 which you discussed at your meeting on 31 January.

Please find attached a report which provides responses to those recommendations.

I welcome the Committee’s on-going input into the development of the Economic Growth Plan.

Yours sincerely

Louise Goldsmith

Leader

West Sussex County Council

Responses to Select Committee’s Recommendations on: Economic Growth Plan 2018-2023

  1. Raised concerns over the appropriate levels of infrastructure and housing to support population growth; including the low number of hotels in the county to accommodate higher tourist levels.

These concerns raise important challenges for the County. Planning legislation includes the essential principle that developers should pay for the social and physical infrastructure to support and facilitate their development. The County Council works with the local planning authorities (LPA) to ensure that new or improved County Council infrastructure (including for highways and transport, education, libraries, fire and rescue) is identified and planned for through the preparation of local plans. It also works with the LPAs to ensure that if they grant planning permission, contributions (s106 and Community Infrastructure Levy [CIL]) are secured for new or improved infrastructure to mitigate the impact of the development on the local area.

The County Council recognises the need for further visitor accommodation offers in West Sussex and will be supportive of opportunities to stimulate the private sector to increase accommodation availability. Experience West Sussex will have some focus on the all year round visitor offer and the off peak season, when there is more capacity for overnight stays.

  1. Raised concerns over the erosion of office and commercial space, especially in town centres, to make way for additional housing in the County. Highlighting a need to work with the district and borough councils for future planning.

Noted and understood. Permitted Development Rights are a contributory factor, (a general planning permission granted by Parliament and not by the local authority).

  1. Queried what work had been carried out in relation to travel behaviours and commuting tolerance, in view of high house prices verses wages in the County; and whether any work had been carried out at rail hubs and on bus usage to measure commuter satisfaction.

The last detailed data report on commuting was in the 2011 Census. Since then there has been a–Census bulletin about travel to work in and beyond West Sussex which can be found here

West Sussex is a net exporter of workforce and overall there are approximately 16,500 more residents who commute out of West Sussex for work, than people who commute into West Sussex

Chichester District and Crawley Borough are the only local authority areas within West Sussex which attract more people into their areas to work, than there are residents who commute out, although Worthing Borough has only a slight difference between the levels of in and out commuters

In West Sussex, Arun has the highest numbers of residents who commute out of that district to their place of work at over 27,000, a net out commuting number of over 18,000, and Crawley the highest numbers of in-commuters at 43,000 coming into Crawley from outside to work a net inflow of 24,000.

Working with our district and boroughs as LPAs we need to ensure that housing developments are accompanied by employment space to create more sustainable communities where people can work closer to their homes. There are examples across the County where we are doing this together – eg Burgess Hill

  1. Requested more economic specific data on migration and immigration in and out of the County; including the percentage of the workforce that were made up of immigrants and what percentage were on the minimum wage.

The following information has been provided by the County Council’s insight team: There is very little in the way of data at upper tier or local authority geographies to understand detailed patterns around the inward & outward flow of EEA migrant workers, the sectors that they work in, types of jobs and the skill and pay levels that they hold.

There was some information released in the 2011 Census on economic activity by country of birth. New National Insurance Number Registrations give some indication around the numbers of new registrations to adult overseas nationals entering the UK by county of origin over time but other than that there is no current data available to quantify the trends nor is there detail over the extent and characteristics of the migrant population within the local workforce. Advice has been sought from ONS and it is acknowledged that international migration data at the local level is difficult to obtain between the Census.

Census data suggests that, at 2011, there were 89.7% (725,600) of West Sussex residents born in the UK; 1.8% from European Union Member countries (as at 2001); 1.7% from Accession countries[1] to the EU post 2001; 2.7% from Middle East & Asia. Arun District and Crawley Borough have the highest numbers of residents from Europe and highest proportions of their total population from Accession countries (3.0% & 3.3% respectively)

Census data suggests that economic activity rates are highest amongst those residents who were born in Accession countries – at 91% for West Sussex, compared with the overall activity rate of 80.8%. Highest activity rates amongst those from accession countries is seen in Crawley at 92.7%.

In terms of the workplace (i.e. those working in the area) population data from the Census, the highest proportion of workers from Accession countries (April 2001-March2011) is found in Arun (4.5%), Crawley (3.4%) and Chichester (3.3%)with the majority from Poland. Over 70% of workers from Poland in West Sussex are working in these 3 local authority areas.

Figures from the New National Insurance Registrations (NNIR) suggest that numbers of registrations from adult overseas nationals in West Sussex has generally risen since 2002, though there have been some fluctuations. Again, Arun, Chichester and Crawley have seen the highest numbers. The last year for which a complete year’s data is available is 2016 when the highest numbers entering the UK were from Romania (27.5%) of the total and 16.5% form Poland.

There is little data at local level around minimum wage levels, and nothing readily available for % of migrant labour earning the minimum wage. However, ONS has compiled some data which suggests that at 2017 the percentage of employee jobs below the living wage is higher in West Sussex (19.2%) than the regional average (18.1%) In 2016 Arun had the highest proportion of employee jobs earning below the living wage at 37.1% compared with all other local authorities in the South East region, Crawley, in 2016 and 2017 had the lowest proportion of all South East authority areas (14.9% & 10.2% respectively).

  1. Suggested that cross-county links could be investigated to give a wider scope and vision for future tourist events.

Opportunities for cross-county links will be explored, particularly in relation to international visitors and the potential for targeting specific markets, working closely with Gatwick Airport.

  1. Raised concerns over the quality of broadband especially in rural areas, and the need to ensure planning for future housing developments included appropriate links to the Gigabit network and allowances for ‘green’ innovations such as electric car charging points; and would also like to see more hydro power being used as a resource.

As we approach the conclusion of superfast roll-out through Better Connected, the County Council will be in a better position to ascertain the position on connectivity in rural areas. Housing developers can ensure fibre is provided through accessing Openreach’s ‘fibre for free’ offer on developments of more than 30 homes. The initial gigabit project is focussed on the public sector estate.

The County Council recognises the importance of Green innovations, and this workis being progressed through the Your Energy Sussex programme run by the Energy team and through the sustainability team who are looking at EV roll out.

  1. Raised concerns over the value for money that publicity programmes such as the Beautiful Outdoors represented, given other spending priorities.

As reported at Select Committee, an annual evaluation of Experience West Sussex is undertaken, including the economic impact. The 2017 report has recently been published and can be found here:

As Experience West Sussex moves forward, the County Council will be continuing to seek funding support for the marketing campaign

  1. Requested further scrutiny of the next phase and associated actions of the Plan, at the appropriate time.

A verbal update is being provided at the Select Committee meeting on the 16th March on the development of the Economic Growth Plan. A full item on the Action Plan is scheduled for June.

[1] Accession Countries are those that joined the EU between April 2001 and March 2011 – Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania.