Economy, Planning & Employability Services

South West Fife Area Committee

Economy and Employability

George Sneddon, Economic Development

14th October 2015

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Labour Market – Jobseekers Allowance ClaimantsFigure 1: JSA Claimant Count Rates by Area Committees

JSA Claimant Count Rates •The JSA rate in SW Fife averaged 2.4% or 781 claimants in 2014. This was the second lowest JSA rate of the 7 committee areas.

•Fife-wide JSA claimants averaged over 7,300 in 2014 a rate of 3.1%.

•JSA is continuing to fall in 2015. As at August 2015 the number of claimants in SW Fife was 586, and a rate of 1.8%.

Youth Unemployment •Fife Council and the Opportunities Fife Partnership are committed to increasing youth employment. The latest JSA claimant rate for those aged 16-24 years was 3.1% (August 2015), or 155 claimants. This is down from 230 claimants or 4.6%, 12 months ago.

Fife Jobs Contract (previously Fife Youth Jobs Contract)•41 SW Fife residents benefitted from the project in 2014/15. This was around 7% of the 606 clients who participated Fife-wide.

Source: Claimant Count, Nomis

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Employment by Sector

Figure 2: Energy, Tourism and Manufacturing Employment in Key Sectors

•Fife is predominantly a service-based economy, however, manufacturing, energy and tourism continue to be key sectors where Fife can grow.

•In 2014 approximately 17,200 were employed in the SW Fife area. The manufacturing, energy and tourism sectors made up over 30% of total employment, or 5,200 jobs.

•Manufacturing alone provided over 3,700 jobs (21.5%) – a higher share than the Fife (11.9%) and Scottish averages (7.4%).

Table 1: SW Fife’s Top 3 Employment Sectors

Source: Business Register and Employment Survey, Nomis

Sector Employment (No and % of total)*

Manufacturing 3,700 (21.5%)

Construction 3,100 (18.0%)

Wholesale & retail 1,800 (10.5%)

* As a percentage of total employment in SW Fife

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Business Activities

Figure 3: New Business Start-ups in the Last 2 years

Figure 4: Employment Land - 2013/14

Business Gateway New Start-ups•110 new business starts in SW Fife in 2014/15 – up from 108 in 2013/14. Fife-wide 801 new business start-ups – slightly down on 2013/14.

•Fife Investment Fund supported 75 jobs with grants and loans to value of £69.1k in 2014/15 to companies in SW Fife.

Commercial Property• 288 Fife Council premises across Fife, and 30 units (117,000 sq. ft.) in SW Fife. Concentrated in Dalgety Bay and Rosyth .Only 1 vacant unit.

•Hillend and Donibristle Industrial Estate – a regeneration Steering Group has been formed. Landscaping and infrastructure improvement underway. Promotion of the area is also progressing.

Employment Land•Rosyth contains the bulk of available employment land across SW Fife and has no major development constraints.

Source: Business Gateway Fife

Source: EPES, Fife Council

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Employability and Skills Sets

Figure 5: Employability Pathway Clients 2014/15 Employability Pathway•140 people from SW Fife were Employability Pathway clients in 2014/15. 10% of Fife total.

•1,393 clients across Fife - an increase of 357 (up 34%) on the previous year.

Culture of Enterprise•Across Fife 64% of schools engaged in activities in 2014/15 – up from 49% in 2013/14.

•230 businesses were involved with the activities in 2014/15 – a threefold increase from 72 businesses in 2013/14.

•Activities across SW Fife schools included Micro Tyco, Your Future’s Unlimited; Primary Engineer and St Andrews Responsible Enterprise workshop.

Development of School Partnerships with Employers•Business Employability Support Service - Recommended by the Wood Commission. OFP and council services working to provide support for businesses and generate work placement, training and job opportunities.

•Potential skill gaps identified across 6 key growth sectors– construction & engineering; food & drink; health & care; tourism & hospitality; energy engineering/manufacturing; and ICT and technology.

•Primary Engineer Programme – primary school pupils in Inverkeithing took part in a pilot programme aimed at promoting engineering as a career choice from an early age. Local companies including Babcock supported the programme.

Source: EPES, Fife Council

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Town Centres – Retail and Development

Retail Floorspace

•Inverkeithing and Kincardine are SW Fife’s 2 main town centres . As at April 2015, retail units in these town centres provided 8,740 m2 of floorspace – Fife’s smallest retail centres.

•As at April 2015, 90% of this floorspace was occupied – well above the Fife average retail occupancy rate of 84.4%.

Number of Retail Units

•77 retail units across Inverkeithing and Kincardine, and an occupancy rate of 88.3% (68 units).

•1,700 retail units across Fife and 85.3% occupancy as at April 2015.

Figure 6: Retail Floorspace (m2) - April 2015

Source: GOAD

Town Centre Development

•Inverkeithing Town Centre Design & Development Framework - developed via funding from the Local Community Planning Budget, the Framework sets out ideas for enhancing the function, appearance, and environment of the town centre. Consultation event held at end of September.

•Town Centre Business Support Fund - 5 awards made to businesses in SW Fife.

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Tourism• Forth Rail Bridge – granted UNESCO World Heritage Status in July 2015. Funding has been awarded to install a floating

pontoon in North Queensferry Harbour, and environmental improvements around the Town Pier.  A business group has been set-up to capitalise on the World heritage status. North Queensferry and the bridge will be promoted through VS area campaigns.

• Cruise Forth – 32 ships greeted at Rosyth, and 1,116 passengers escorted to Dunfermline in 2015 (and over 4,000 escorted in the last 4 years). Local businesses have gained new business from cruise ship passengers, including hotel bookings, additional spend in local shops, taxi bookings. Funding for a year long VisitScotland marketing campaign. Cruise Forth Welcome Volunteers won the 2015 Scottish Thistle Awards Warmest Welcome Award.

• Filming of Outlander – some filming of episodes in Culross has increased the interest amongst Americans and Canadians to visit Fife. Dunfermline and West Fife LTA established a working group to capitalise on this.

• Digital Kiosks - digital visitor information kiosks have been installed in Culross and North Queensferry.

• World Host – a new tourism customer care programme is being rolled out through Fife Tourism Partnership. The Hub at North Queensferry Station is now a recognised World Host business, as are a number of taxi drivers involved with the Cruise Forth initiative in Rosyth and go towards Fife Destination status for World Host.

Energy and Manufacturing• Rosyth Waterfront work is progressing with 3 principal landowners (Scarborough Muir Group, Forth Ports and Babcock

International) in the development of a Rosyth Waterfront Development Framework. This will guide future development in the area and support a promotional strategy for targeting jobs and investment from Energy sectors.

• EPES is continuing to work with the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service, Scottish Engineering and Scottish Development International in delivering support through its Manufacturing Action Plan.

• Following the announcement that Longannet Power Station will close in March 2016, a Scottish Government Task Force has been set up.  An Economic Recovery Plan is being developed to provide immediate support for the workforce; the companies affected through supply chain linkages; and the communities around the plant.  The taskforce will also look at how to attract new investment, support the economy and address the long-term impacts of the closure.

• The completion of the new Queensferry Crossing will promote investment opportunities in the Bridgehead/ M90 Corridor.

Key Sectors / Future Opportunities

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George Sneddon, Service Manager - Economic Development TeamGeorge-Y.Sneddon@fife.gov.uk or 492181

Further Information