8.1.1 The Borough is a key driver of economic activity in the prosperous Thames Valley. The Borough Local Plan (BLP) seeks to meet the changing development needs of business and support a borough economy fit for the twenty first century. Planning supports sustainable economic development and policies are intended to guide and support economic development which ensures that local residents will benefit from a thriving and healthy economy.
8.1.2 The Borough has a strong local economy, with good representation in the service sector, knowledge-based firms and other professional occupations. There is a smaller but important manufacturing base. Within the Borough, employment has historically been concentrated in the principal towns: Windsor and Maidenhead. However the East Berkshire Local Economic Assessment suggests that employment in both of these towns has decreased over recent years, flagging this as a concern.
8.1.3 The financial and business services sector is particularly strong accounting for around a third of jobs in the Borough. The information and communication, and wholesale and retail sectors provide significant employment. Another very important sector for the Borough is tourism, including international business tourism. The Borough has several attractions of international importance including Windsor Castle (and Windsor Great Park); Legoland; and Ascot Racecourse. There is a smaller but important manufacturing base.
8.1.4 While the local economy has restructured in recent decades to become more business and service oriented, and this trend is likely to continue, a healthy economy still needs a broad and diverse base with many different types of business sectors represented. This helps insulate the Borough from structural economic changes and any future economic downturn, and ensures that residents have access to as wide a range of employment opportunities as possible.
8.1.5 Unemployment in the Borough has historically been below regional and national rates. In common with other areas, the claimant count rose in the late 2000s/early 2010s but remains low compared to other areas. The labour market is tight with high rates of economic activity, and the workforce is well skilled and educated. The Borough is one of the most buoyant parts of the Thames Valley and has intrinsic growth potential but this may be limited by the considerable land constraints. Currently, many of its highly qualified residents are commuting out of the Borough to work. This plan seeks where possible to align local jobs with residents aspirations and to encourage and sustain high levels of enterprise, particularly focused around the Thames Valley Berkshire Sector Propositions of Digital Technologies, Life Science & Healthcare and Energy & Environment.
8.2.1 The economic strengths of the Borough influence its ability to support new businesses and employment floorspace in future. These strengths include:
8.2.2 Alongside these strengths, challenges exist which may act to limit the growth of the local economy and these include high housing costs and wage levels, high levels of out-commuting to London and a highly constrained development land supply. A long term trend has been apparent of a restructuring of the local economy which has seen a move away from traditional industrial uses and towards higher value, office-based employment uses.
8.2.3 Economic growth in Berkshire is influenced by the Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (TVBLEP). The Council is working closely with the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and the other Berkshire authorities to ensure that the aspirations of the TVBLEP’s Strategic Economic Plan for Berkshire (SEP) can be accommodated in a way that recognises the Borough’s very special character and the considerable land supply constraints it faces. The Berkshire SEP articulates how the LEP will achieve the ambition of creating 20,000 new jobs across Berkshire by 2021.
8.2.4 Employment floor space will be managed and appropriate development and redevelopment supported including the promotion of appropriate infrastructure to support home and flexible working patterns. This will be supported by the Borough’s Economic Development Strategy.
8.2.5 TVBLEP and the six Berkshire authorities jointly commissioned Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners (NLP) to undertake identification of the Functional Economic Market Areas (FEMAs) that they operate within and also to analyse the land requirements necessary to accommodate jobs in the main “B Class” sectors which together broadly cover office, manufacturing and warehousing land uses. These studies form a key part of the detailed analysis for the implementation of the SEP and are an essential element of the plan making process.
8.2.6 The evidence base to support the identification of economic development needs for the Borough draws on these Economic Development Needs Assessments (EDNAs) produced by NLP. The studies have been carried out by NLP in accordance with the Planning Practice Guidance to provide an assessment of future business needs and requirements for employment land and floorspace within each FEMA, focusing on the group of 'B Class' sectors. However, the Council recognises that not all jobs fall within these use classes; growth in the service industry, retail, leisure and tourism is also expected to provide further economic growth.
8.2.7 Two core FEMAs operate across the Borough which reflect the varied characteristics and economic roles associated with different parts of it. The Borough’s position within two FEMAs illustrates the equally strong relationships that the Borough exhibits with more central parts of Berkshire as well as areas to the north and east. In labour market terms, eastern parts of the Borough share a Travel to Work Area (TTWA) with Slough and Heathrow, while northern and western parts of the Borough have stronger functional economic relationships with western M4 corridor locations such as Reading and Wokingham.
8.2.8 Three separate FEMAs were identified as follows:
8.2.9 The evidence from the studies help to inform the economic policies for the BLP. The outputs of the EDNAs include jobs forecasts and projections, and B Class floorspace requirements for the need arising from the Borough. The analysis used three scenarios for future economic growth to 2036 based on labour demand, past trends of completion of employment space and labour supply.
8.2.10 The derivation of floorspace requirements from forecast growth is highly sensitive to the assumptions made during the analysis. The conversion of jobs change to floorspace requirement by type of property that the EDNA has made provide an approximation on the macro-economic scale of sub-regional planning, but may not be the most appropriate to the specific circumstances and markets within individual districts.
8.2.11 For the Royal Borough the assessment for B8, B2, and E(g)(iii) figures appears at odds with market trends. To check the validity of the findings in the local context, The Council undertook an assessment of the appropriateness of the broad sector classifications used in the Berkshire EDNAs to the local circumstances in the Borough. This sensitivity analysis has identified a higher net need for E(g) floorspace and a lower requirement for B8 warehousing; which would be analogous to market trends.
8.2.12 The sensitivity analysis made use of the Office of National Statistics Inter Departmental Business Register (IDBR) to study the property requirements of businesses currently operating within the Borough. The analysis suggested the change in jobs and resulting net employment floorspace needs by use class for the scenarios tested are:
Uses |
IDBR informed Labour Supply Jobs Growth for Plan Period (20 years) |
Offices E(g) |
5,908 |
519 |
|
349 |
|
TOTAL E(g) & B CLASS JOBS GROWTH |
6,776 |
TOTAL JOBS GROWTH IN ALL SECTORS |
11,291 |
Table 13 Labour Supply Jobs Growth for the Borough for the Plan Period (20 years)
8.2.13 Since the base date the Council has successfully delivered nearly 4,500 jobs within our existing portfolio of sites. This has been achieved through the reuse of vacant property and occupiers making more efficient use of their stock. Therefore, to meet our minimum job target, we need to make provision for 7,000 net additional jobs, of which 4,000 are expected to be within the E(g) and B use classes.
8.2.14 Using industry standard employment densities (16) this requires an additional 50,000 sq. m of office space and 25,000 sq. m of industrial space. Since the base date the Council has successfully delivered nearly 4,500 jobs within our existing portfolio of sites. This has been achieved through the reuse of vacant property and occupiers making more efficient use of their stock. Therefore, to meet our minimum job target, we need to make provision for 7,000 net additional jobs, of which 4,000 are expected to be within the E(g) and B use classes.
8.2.15 For offices the Council already has a positive pipeline of new office supply (17) which reduces the need for this plan to identify new sites to accommodate office job growth. There is a need to provide 26,000 sq. m of new space on new sites that do not have planning permission.
8.2.16 To address this gap a number of new allocations are proposed as set out in Table 14 (in Policy ED1). Whilst there are around enough sites either permitted or allocated in this plan a cautious approach is still justified – especially to control losses of viable to occupy stock. The scale of future permitted development losses is unknown and could rapidly erode any remaining flexibility in the market. The Council intends to apply selective Article 4 directions in our town centres and major office sites, but these will take time to implement. To provide additional contingency the Council will work to secure a stronger pipeline of new office space within the town centres with any redevelopment site first seeking to maximise net additional office space – in line with market evidence at the time.
8.2.17 For industrial uses there are signs that more land may be needed than would be required to accommodate the increase in jobs alone. There is a need of around 25,000 sq. m of new space to accommodate our job growth, but unlike offices there is a negative industrial pipeline. Market evidence suggests that there is very limited capacity remaining in our stock to accommodate growth – with almost no vacant space available for new firms or existing firms to expand (18). To meet our growth needs, and address historic under provision, the Council estimates that the plan ought to look to provide around 80,000 sq. m of new industrial stock. This would require around 20 ha of new land using standard employment and plot ratio assumptions (19).
8.2.18 For industrial uses policy ED1(7) allocates two named sites. Together these sum to 26.9 ha, exceeding the 20 ha noted above. But while the whole of the Triangle site is allocated in this plan, not all of the site is developable as a result of a number of constraints – most noticeably flooding. The developable area, and floorspace capacity of the site, is not yet confirmed but not all of the site would have to be developed to meet the identified need for industrial uses.
8.2.19 The Council will monitor the pipeline of sites to meet its minimum job target and provide flexibility in the stock of property. Should a shortfall emerge (because sites are not delivered as expected or new constraints identified) the Council will seek to address this as part of the next plan review.
Policy ED 1 Economic Development
Allocated Sites to Meet Economic Needs
Offices
Industrial and Warehousing Space
Site allocations and proforma requirements
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8.4.1 The general approach towards economic development is to make the best use of existing employment land and to aim for a diverse and knowledge-based economy based around higher value, lower impact activities including high-tech employment uses. Economic growth that does not require the importing of extra labour or the use of extra land is encouraged. This is often referred to as smart growth, and is seen as an essential element of the Borough’s future economic success.
8.4.2 Smart growth can achieve higher prosperity without increasing the ecological or physical footprint of business. This reflects wider changes in society that are seeing a move away from traditional, rigid workplace-based working patterns and towards a more flexible and responsive way of working, including in particular much greater use of home-working.
8.4.3 The EDNA identifies there will also be a rise in smarter and more flexible forms of working, this is supported by our sensitivity analysis. This reflects national trends and is likely to become a more important factor in the local economy in future. To reflect the need for flexibility and support smart growth in the economy, the BLP aims to support home-working and other forms of flexible working, including the provision of the infrastructure necessary to support this.
8.4.4 The Borough will continue to work with key stakeholders and infrastructure providers to improve broadband coverage and enable the provision of new infrastructure, in particular the implementation of the Superfast Berkshire project.
8.4.5 Besides allowing economic growth without a commensurate increase in employment floorspace, this type of working also facilitates a greater number of people to be economically active or increase their level of economic activity. This in turn aids the development of the Borough’s economy and the principle of flexible working and the infrastructure necessary to support this forms a central part of this strategy and is strongly encouraged.
8.4.6 Home working will be supported owing to its economic value to the Borough, and this will be applied within the context of determining whether its impact on the local area is acceptable. Neighbourhood Plans may offer further detail and guidance on the assessment of such proposals.
8.5.1 The presence of a range of types of businesses provides a number of benefits for Borough residents. These include the opportunity to access a sustainable choice of local employment opportunities and useful services. In addition, the availability of suitable business premises means that residents who wish to set up their own business will find it easier to do so.
8.5.2 Nationally, permitted development rights to convert offices and light industrial units to housing will inevitably reduce the supply of employment floorspace in the Borough. Any changes arising will be monitored during the plan period and the supply of floorspace will be managed to ensure that an appropriate supply of premises continues to be made available to support the needs of the local economy. The Royal Borough may consider the use of available planning powers, to ensure that this supply remains to ensure a vibrant and adaptive local economic base can thrive and prosper.
8.6.1 The Borough has a high level of new business formation, and the small business sector is vital to the social and economic well-being of the Borough. Enabling small businesses to develop and thrive can strengthen the local economy and increase business vibrancy, as well as leading to greater employment opportunities for local people. The Borough supports the development of small businesses in a flexible and sustainable way, through planning applications and the allocation of land.
8.6.2 Access to broadband is a high priority for many small businesses, and it is important that homes are broadband-enabled to allow for effective home-working. The Borough will continue to work with key stake holders and infrastructure providers to improve broadband coverage and enable the provision of new Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure. In particular the Superfast Berkshire project and its necessary supporting infrastructure is supported.
8.7.1 It is considered likely that the need for new or replacement employment floorspace can be largely met through intensification and redevelopment leading to more efficient use of existing sites, alongside a small number of new allocations.
8.7.2 To secure this objective the Council will need to ensure that space is not unnecessarily lost from its existing portfolio of sites. For many occupiers new space may not be affordable and so substitutable for the space lost. Where sites are lost the Council may be required to release additional greenfield land as part of the next plan review to ensure the ED1 objectives are met over the whole plan period. There are therefore, strong grounds to resist the loss of space wherever possible.
8.7.3 For these reasons the Council will look to apply at least ‘nil net loss’ principle when managing the portfolio of sites identified in policy ED2, with a preference to increase business use class floorspace. This principle first applies to the type of space currently on site to ensure that activity is not displaced by, for example, industrial property being replaced by ‘lighter’ employment uses that do not meet the same qualitative need. It would then look for replacement with other industrial or office uses appropriate to the sites classification in ED2.
Policy ED 2 Protected Employment Sites
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8.9.1 The BLP takes a positive approach to ensuring that a suitable range of floorspace is provided to meet the needs of other businesses important to the Borough economy. This includes lower cost premises suitable for small and start-up businesses, together with premises for industrial and warehousing operations.
8.9.2 Existing employment sites have been assessed and those with the greatest ability to provide a range of types of accommodation suitable for the needs of a diverse range of local businesses have been identified as industrial areas. By ensuring that a sufficient portfolio of sites will remain available to service businesses in a variety of economic sectors the policies aim to support the needs of the local economy.
8.9.3 Proposals for economic development uses may come forward on sites that are not currently allocated for employment uses. Where the site is not already in employment use, an assessment will be made of the benefits arising from the proposal, and this will be compared with the benefits of retaining the existing use. Each case will need to be determined on its merits, according to local circumstances and where the site is already in employment use, the proposals will be supported in principle.
8.9.4 The policy approach gives general support to new economic development while ensuring that any loss of employment land is properly justified by evidence. It is important that existing and new businesses are supported by ensuring that a suitable supply of employment land and premises continues to be available. This policy therefore takes a cautious approach towards the loss of employment land and premises, to ensure that a sufficient supply of sites continues to exist to meet the needs of the local economy.
8.9.5 The requirement for marketing evidence in this policy applies when a proposal is made that would result in the loss of an economic use or a net reduction in the quantity of employment land or premises. In such instances this policy requires justification for the change and a demonstration that it would not cause unacceptable harm to the local economy. Other relevant information such as the quality and vacancy level of the premises and the appropriateness of the location for economic use may also be submitted. Prospective applicants are required to formally agree the marketing process with the Local Planning Authority prior to its commencement and demonstrate that the price and terms on which the land or premises were, or will be, marketed were reasonable by comparison with similar examples in the local area in accordance with Appendix D. This is especially important where, from the outset, the prospective applicant considers addressing this policy is overly onerous given their site constraints or limitations. See Appendix D for marketing evidence details which will be used to assess the acceptability, or otherwise, of the information submitted and the marketing undertaken.
8.9.6 The Council intends to introduce Article 4 directions, withdrawing permitted development rights to convert offices to homes as soon as possible. In the long term, uncontrolled losses of highly accessible sites, suitable for high trip generating office uses, cannot be sustained.
Policy ED 3 Other Sites and Loss of Employment Floorspace Other Sites
Loss of Employment Floorspace
Marketing evidence will need to address the demand from both the freehold and leasehold markets – reflecting the fact that the dynamics of the two markets may differ. |
8.11.1 Agriculture and related industries have played an important part in the local economy in the area. However, farm businesses are under increasing pressure to respond to economic changes and trends within the farming industry. Farm diversification can help to sustain existing farm businesses to ensure long-term viability and provide rural employment opportunities. Such activities should respect the character of their rural location and protect or enhance the area’s countryside. Existing buildings should be re-used, where possible, to provide any accommodation needed in association with alternative uses.
8.11.2 Farm diversification is not a new phenomenon and farm businesses increasingly need to find ways to offset the long-term trend of falling prices for agricultural goods and reduced farm incomes. Farming has long played a key role in tourism and many other aspects of the rural economy and is promoted within the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) as a means to help maintain a prosperous rural economy.
8.11.3 The scale and character of the diversified activities will need to be sensitive to the character of their setting and must protect or enhance it. Existing buildings should be re-used where possible and any opportunity should be taken to seek environmental improvements and to improve the appearance of the holding as a whole through appropriate diversification schemes.
8.11.4 The Royal Borough is keen to ensure that agricultural businesses can be sustainable, efficient and competitive. Therefore the authorities will encourage well-conceived proposals relating to the diversification of farm businesses where it is required for the efficient operation of an existing farm enterprise, promotes economic activity, maintains or enhances the environment, and is in accordance with all other policies in this Plan.
Policy ED 4 Farm Diversification
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16 For office 13.75 sq. m per job, for industrial 47.2 sq. m per job and for warehousing 71.2 sq. m per job.
17 Alma Road, Windsor (former Imperial House) 16,389 sq. m (PA ref: 18/00095/FULL) and Broadway (Landings) 9,595 sq. m (PA ref: 18/01576)
18 Despite a need for an additional 25,000 sq. m of new industrial space - since the base date of the Plan the Borough has lost (or are likely to lose) around 45,000 sq. m of space. Overall it is estimated that to correct for this an additional 80,000 sq. m of space could be justified to meet our job growth and address historic undersupply
19 At a floorspace to land plot ratio of 40%
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