Approach to the economy and employment

Setting an employment growth target

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) states “planning policies and decisions should help create the conditions in which businesses can invest, expand and adapt.” A significant part of this is making sure that there is enough employment land available in the right areas to support local businesses, encourage expansion of small businesses and attract investment.

Updated needs figure

Unlike for housing need, the NPPF doesn’t contain a standard method for calculating employment land need. Instead, the updated Housing and Economic Development Needs Assessment (HEDNA) calculates the employment land requirement based on things such as:

• New jobs expected to be created by growth in industry sectors (labour demand)
• New jobs needed because of population growth (labour supply)
• Analysis of past delivery and future property market requirements

Based on this assessment, the HEDNA suggests an employment need within the borough to 2043 of 1ha of office development and 24ha of industrial development. Taking into account developments that have recently taken place or are under construction brings the office development need down to zero, and the industrial development need down to 22ha.

You can find the full analysis of employment need in the HEDNA on our website at: Local Plan 2022-2043 | Tamworth Borough Council

Based on the above information, we propose to set the employment target for the plan as 22ha.

Options for employment delivery

Once the amount of new employment land we need to deliver by 2043 has been established, we need to decide on the best approach for delivering it in a sustainable way.

Summary and proposed approach

As with the housing need, delivering new employment development to meet the identified need will be a challenge with the borough’s constrained supply of land and with the ability of our neighbours to help restricted by their own needs.

Each of the options above has some merit, but it is likely that one single approach won’t be enough on its own, and we will need to consider using a combination of the above options to deliver the required level of employment land growth over the plan period.

Our proposed approach therefore is to retain the existing allocation at Land south of the A5, Bitterscote South (site reference EMP1) from the current local plan, and look to deliver the remaining need as additional floorspace on the existing industrial estates and other appropriate sites. We will also continue to talk to neighbouring councils to establish if they are able to provide any assistance meeting our need.