Job losses hit Gloucestershire hard this year, but there are signs the county’s economy and businesses are on the way back. Chloe Rigby reports.
Ask any Gloucestershire business person and they’ll tell you how much the county has going for it: beautiful countryside that draws new residents and tourists to its honeypot villages; Regency Cheltenham, with its spa town heritage and vibrant festival scene; and good road and transport links in every direction.
Peter Jordan, general manager of Eastwood Park, a training, conference and wedding venue nearWotton-under-Edge, is a fan: “You’ve got the best of both worlds – beautiful countryside, successful small businesses, a financial sector in Gloucester and big multinationals such as Airbus and Rolls-Royce to the north of Bristol.”
And Alan Beresford, chief executive of recruitment company Omega Resources Group in Stonehouse, says he’ll never move his business out of the county. “It’s beautiful, and it works for business. There are talented people and the University of Gloucestershire has an excellent reputation.” Gloucestershire also has support from beyond its boundaries. George Smith, of Ross-on-Wye’s Walcot Timber, which has an outlet in Cheltenham, says the county’s diverse economy has kept it more upbeat than other areas his business takes him.
Yet the county has felt the recession. With strong financial and manufacturing sectors, it’s had its share of job losses. Cheltenham is home to Zurich, Lloyds-owned Cheltenham & Gloucester, Chelsea Building Society, Eagle Star and aerospace supplier Messier Dowty. All have taken a hit. Nearby Gloucester is home to Ecclesiastical Insurance, which has been forced to scale back its ambitions, too.
The county’s proximity to Bristol’s aerospace cluster also means it has more advanced manufacturing businesses, and some have struggled. Ian Knight, Gloucestershire area manager for the South West Regional Development Agency (RDA), says the county has seen “significant redundancies”, with the likes of Renishaw atWotton-under-Edge shedding staff.
Unemployment has more than doubled in the county in the past year. In October 2008 5,544 people were claiming jobseekers’ allowance. By October 2009 that had risen to 12,183, with pockets of higher unemployment in Gloucester (4.6 per cent) and Cheltenham (4.1 per cent). There are also significant pockets of deprivation in the two towns. Eighteen of Gloucester’s wards are among the most deprived in the country, according to the 2007 Indices of Deprivation, and Cheltenham has nine.
But Gloucester is surviving the recession thanks in part to a £1bn regeneration scheme that started five years ago and is expected to continue for another five. Chris Oldershaw, chief executive of the Gloucester Heritage Urban Regeneration Company (GHURC), says: “There is a feeling that development had passed Gloucester by. It hasn’t performed as well as other areas in terms of regeneration but it’s fighting back.
“We have tremendous assets – natural assets such as water that has been key to regeneration in so many other cities, and lots of listed buildings.”They include 33 ancient monuments and 490 listed buildings: it’s a roll-call that means the aim is to restore Gloucester as a great English city.
So far £450m has already been invested in Gloucester’s ‘Magnificent Seven’ – the seven districts of historic importance to the city. Works completed include the Gloucester Quays retail outlet development at Gloucester Docks; and work will soon begin on revitalising Greyfriars and Blackfriars – the latter a historic convent.
Work on the overall vision has slowed, but the GHURC is using the downturn to progress planning. The South West RDA has confirmed a grant of £11.2m to improve the economic links between Gloucester Quays and the city centre to finish the investment in Gloucester Docks by the end of 2010.
The results can already be seen. Gloucestershire College has moved to Gloucester Docks as part of the regeneration and says its popularity has climbed. And Oldershaw says the benefits can be felt more generally: “There are more people coming into the city since work started. It’s been a major catalyst for change.”
Along with the regeneration has come projects to get the city working again. GloucesterWorks was set up in part to train local residents to take up many of the 1,100 jobs created at Gloucester Quays, and, says Knight, unemployment has not risen as high as it might have thanks to the investment.
Marketing Gloucester, GHURC’s sister company, is setting up Gloucester Business, to bring together the commercial community in the city. “The intention,” says Graham Walker, who leads the organisation, “is for it to be the organisation that unites businesses and city stakeholders to maximise opportunities to make Gloucester a business centre.”
Rupert Joseland, of the developer St Modwen, thinks the work in Gloucester is giving it an edge over nearby Cheltenham. He says: “Cheltenham is an affluent Regency town, but there are fewer opportunities because it’s so protected. Gloucester, though, is going through a massive transformation.”
That’s an opportunity to be capitalised on when the upturn comes. Recruiters will be among the first to see the upturn in employment – and Omega’s Beresford, which places staff in professional and unskilled positions, and offers consultancy services for jobseekers, believes that started in July.
The outlook for retail is also looking less gloomy. The Dunelm soft furnishings chain recently unveiled plans for a 35,000 sq ft store in Cheltenham, while local retail group Superdry is said to be planning a £400m float on the London Stock Exchange.
Joseland, whose company is working on the Littlecombe development site at Dursley, also sees signs of an upturn in the local housing market. Bloor Homes tested the market earlier this year with a small number of show homes and is now going to build 30.
Then there’s the work scheduled to take the county further. The draft Regional Spatial Strategy envisages closer links between Gloucester and Cheltenham, giving the two strength through a larger economic unity. And the two are growing closer in other ways.
Walker of Marketing Gloucester says: “We’ve been engaged on a joint bid with Cheltenham for UK City of Culture in 2013. That’s evidence of a willingness to work in partnership to promote the two urban centres in the context of rural Gloucestershire.”
Also in: December 2009
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