UDP Chapter 2 - Strategic Overview - Employment & the Local Economy
Unitary Development Plan
Chapter 2 : Strategic Overview
Employment & the Local Economy
Key
| 2.1 | The Tameside area has experienced a long term decline in the traditional textile and heavy engineering industries which accounted for the original growth of its separate manufacturing towns in the 19th Century. Despite losing over a quarter of its manufacturing jobs in the recession of the early 1980's, Tameside's employment structure is still reliant on a substantially higher proportion of manufacturing industries (39% in 1989) than Greater Manchester as a whole and nationally (24% in 1989). A wider range of types of manufacturing are now present than was the case historically, including food, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and electrical products, as well as clothing and engineering. However, whilst there are some notable local success stories many firms are operating in mature markets and in premises poorly equipped for current needs, and may face an uncertain future. |
| 2.2 | Tameside is part of a job market which extends well beyond its boundaries, with at least a third of residents working elsewhere and a third of local jobs taken by people from other districts. However, continuing job losses and factory closures during periods of rationalisation and recession, a structure which remains under represented in business services and growth sectors of manufacturing, and a marked lack of office, leisure and tourism developments all point to serious problems for the area's employment base during the 1990's. |
| 2.3 | There are serious problems of poverty and disadvantage in Tameside which are a direct consequence of the economic and employment structure of the area. Unemployment has been typically above the national average for a number of years, and during 1991 it grew at one of the fastest rates among the Greater Manchester Districts. The district average hides pockets of very high local unemployment, most notably in the Hyde-Godley and Ashton-St Peter's Wards, which had rates of 16.7% and 15.5% respectively in July 1992, when the Tameside average was 9.6%. Male unemployment in these Wards at the time was 23.5% and 22.7%. |
| 2.4 | Official unemployment is only part of the story. Many people do not qualify for inclusion in the official count but are nevertheless looking for work and unable to find any. 13% of Tameside's adult population receive income support and in 1991 28% received Poll Tax rebate, highlighting low income levels. The majority of Tameside residents are employed in manual or junior occupations and the vast majority of firms in the Borough are small. The predominance of low paid and low skilled jobs is a serious problem, with wage levels in Tameside typically below both the Greater Manchester and the national average. There are very high concentrations of poverty and deprivation in certain parts of the Borough, with unemployment, low income and economic disadvantage particularly high in Ashton's West End, Hattersley and central Hyde. |
| 2.5 | During the recession of the early 1980's a number of long established manufacturing firms closed down, releasing large areas of land for redevelopment. However, by the time that interest in industrial development began to recover in the late 1980's almost all of these sites had been taken for housing or retail purposes and few plots were left within the newer light industrial estates in the central part of the Borough. Manufacturing is still mostly concentrated in the canal corridors and inner urban areas, especially in the Tame valley, where there is a general shortage of suitable modern premises, an impression in places of dereliction and decay, and an often inadequate road infrastructure. Critically, the Borough lacks large, good quality, easily accessible and readily developable sites which would be capable of attracting inward, job creating investment. |
| 2.6 | Government policy on regional assistance has shifted in the past decade from a pattern of relatively widespread availability to a concentration on smaller areas judged to have greater levels of deprivation. Tameside is designated both as an Assisted Area, whereby firms in the Borough have access to Regional Selective Assistance Grant, and also a Derelict Land Clearance Area, where grants of up to 100% are available to the local authority and up to 80% to private landowners, in order that derelict land may be reclaimed. Significantly however, and in contrast to a number of other metropolitan districts, Tameside does not have Urban Programme status which would give access to assistance such as City Grants or City Challenge. |
| 2.7 | Poised against these long running problems are a number of key points of existing and future potential which could be taken advantage of to strengthen and diversify the Borough's economy. Tameside has recently been connected to the national motorway network through the opening of the M66 from Stockport to Denton, which provides easy and quick access to Manchester Airport. The extension of this motorway northwards through Tameside to link with the existing M66 at Middleton is programmed for 1996, thereby completing the Manchester Outer Ring Road and increasing the accessibility of the Borough from a greater range of directions. |
| 2.8 | The M66 intersects with the M67 at Denton and there are clear prospects for upgrading of the trans-Pennine route from the eastern end of the M67 at Hattersley, which would improve the Borough's connections with South Yorkshire and the M1 route to the south. The Guide Bridge area of Tameside is a prime location for a rail served international freight terminal (inland port) to handle movement to and from the continent via the Channel Tunnel. Most significantly, there are substantial areas of level, open land situated immediately adjacent to existing and proposed motorway intersections on the Outer Ring Road which could provide major development opportunities. |
Page last updated: 7 March 2011