Stimulating the economy
Stimulating the Economy: Responding to the Economic Situation at the first Recycling Lives in Preston
The first Recycling Lives is in Preston, our home city. Our concept is multi-tasked to respond to several needs, homelessness, deprivation, entrepreneurship and waste management. Each Local Authority area is different, each Local Authority Ward is different. Recycling Lives responds to local needs and local circumstances.
The most deprived areas of Preston are concentrated around the wards of St Matthews, St Georges, Deepdale, Fishwick and Ribbleton, recognised as such with the investment in recent years of funding from SRB3, SRB6, Estates Renewal Challenge Fund and ERDF Objective 2. Against almost all measures this remains an area of desperate need. The proportions of people in these wards who are economically active are well below the comparatives for Preston as a whole. Unemployment in the deprived wards is around twice that of the affluent wards.
In Preston as a whole 35% of the active population is in Managerial, professional or technical employment. Regionally the figure is 37%, and nationally 40%: whereas in the seriously deprived wards the percentage ranges from 20% to 31%. Nationally 29% of school leavers leave with no qualifications, whereas in the North-west region the figure is 32%, and in Preston as a whole 31%. However in the deprived wards the figures are consistently higher, being 37% for St Georges, 43% for Deepdale, 37% Town Centre.
The North-West economy has enjoyed growth recently which is well above the UK as a whole. Preston’s employment base has evolved from being primarily manufacturing to one of the North West’s prominent business and administrative centres. It follows therefore that those less skilled and less qualified living in the deprived areas of the city will struggle to find suitable and appropriate employment. In Preston around 7.5% of the workforce is involved in manufacturing industry, compared with around 17% for Lancashire as a whole, and 12% nationally.
The three major drivers of the North West Development Agency’s Regional Economic Strategy aim to create “a dynamic, sustainable international economy, which competes on the basis of knowledge, advanced technology and an excellent quality of life for all”:
- Improve productivity and grow the market;
- Grow the size and capability of the workforce;
- Create and maintain the conditions for sustainable growth and private sector investment.
Among its more identified and detailed challenges are:
- Improving basic and higher level skills and qualification levels
- Stimulating enterprise
- Expanding the role of higher education in the city region
- Ensure that business start up and survival provision is targeted at under performing sectors
- Undertake cluster programmes in priority sectors….such as….Energy and Environmental technologies
- Support companies to use and harness the benefits of ICT and digital technologies
- Improve business support efficiency and waste minimisation support to businesses
- Deliver the basic skills required by employers for those individuals without qualification
- Deliver the skills required by priority sectors
- Develop and encourage employment creation in or near deprived areas
- Capitalise on the strengths and key assets of the cities of Manchester, Preston and Liverpool as key drivers of economic growth
“Ambition Lancashire – the Lancashire Strategic Partnership Community Strategy 2005-2025” sets significant Business Improvement targets seeking to address Skills Shortages in order to secure Lancashire’s long term economic growth. These include:
- Bring more people into employment in Lancashire, focussing on areas where there are significant concentrations of people not in work.
- Develop programmes to foster and support social enterprises and community businesses, especially in the county’s most deprived wards.
- Support Preston to develop high quality modern facilities in support of its role as a gateway interchange for visitors in Lancashire, and to improve its status as a historic city.
Preston’s Economic Regeneration Strategy and Action Plan calls for key interventions to include:
- Securing labour market participation (matching skills to employment opportunities)
- Addressing the low skills of the resident population in the most deprived areas
- Encouraging businesses to invest in workforce development
- Providing jobs for local residents
It is clear from all of this data that Preston and its most deprived wards remain in need of considerable economic stimulation and investment, and will continue to attract special-needs status for some time. Opportunities and initiatives to create employment, self-employment and skills-training facilities in these wards are to be encouraged and supported both financially and in all other ways available.
Recycling Lives in Preston will respond to these key targets and objectives. A comprehensive range of skills will be developed in the Recycling Lives workshop and associated activities:
- Retail - including customer-care, cash-handling, goods receipt and delivery, shop-front maintenance
- Workshop - carpentry, renovation, electrical testing, plumbing
- Catering - cooking, food-preparation, food-hygiene, cleaning and laundry
- ICT - word-processing, spreadsheet, database, web-design
leading to the accumulation of skills which will enable Recycling Lives residents and local community members to become proficient in or as:
- Commercial vehicle driving
- Sales assistance
- ICT support
- Administrative assistance
- Marketing and sales assistance
- Web Design
- Catering supervision
- Housekeeping
- Store management
- Computer recycling
- White goods restoration
- Electrical work
- Scrap metal recycling
- Litter picking
- Gardens maintenance
- Plastic recycling
- Glass recycling
- Ground work
- Leaflet drops
Recycling Lives Quick Links
Latest News
