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The red rose of Lancashire
The arms of Lancashire
Strong in historic associations and synonymous with industry and commerce, the present day Lancashire region is only part of what history knows as "Lancashire" – the great duchy covering most of North West England that gave the world the Industrial Revolution. Much of the traditional imagery of the Red Rose County is embodied in towns that are now part of the two great conurbations of Greater Manchester and Merseyside. That which remains, however, still contains towns and cities that are the product of this earlier industrial era.
Today's Lancashire region, which includes Lancashire County and the two unitary authorities of (External) Blackburn with Darwen and (External) Blackpool , covers 3,075 sq.km and has a population of nearly 1.5 million people. A further 8 million people live within 50km of the county in one of Europe's most densely populated areas. It is a large and in many respects a unique geographical area, retaining a strong economic base under-pinned by long urban and industrial traditions. But paradoxically, Lancashire is also a multi-faceted region and is widely renowned for its environmental and quality of life attractions, notably its diverse and beautiful landscapes and countryside and its coastal fringes offering many opportunities for recreation and leisure.
With a £21bn per annum economy and home to more than 41,000 businesses with an employee workforce of over 610,000, Lancashire is one of the largest sub-regions in Britain in respect of its contribution to national output. Within the North West alone, Lancashire provides for about a fifth of the region's total economic production of goods and services, its contribution being second only to that of Greater Manchester.
The Lancashire region was at the forefront of the "Industrial Revolution" and its accompanying urbanisation and mass production. It is where many of Britain's more traditional industries – most notably (External) textiles , clothing and footwear, but also engineering, vehicles and chemicals among them, as well as deep coal mining, had their earliest start. Cotton production in particular became synonymous with the County and at its zenith dominated the local economy employing more than a quarter of a million people within present day boundaries alone. In many manufacturing communities across the old cotton belt "King Cotton" accounted for three quarters or more of all locally insured employment and indirectly supported much of the remainder – a degree of economic dependency scarcely imaginable today.
To this day the legacy of canals, older industrial and commercial premises and industrial structure still bears witness in parts of the county to the area's contribution to the development of manufacturing industry in Britain. Many towns too still retain the physical stamp of this earlier manufacturing era.
As It WasPhotograph of an industrial town in bygone Lancashire
Map of Lancashire
But constant change and adaptation has been a feature of Lancashire's industry: the massive expansion of the textile and allied industries to become a global force over the late 18th and 19th centuries and then their protracted contraction over the 20th century; the growth of aerospace and defence activities , engineering, electronics, vehicles, rubber and plastics , and the publishing and printing industries in the 1940s, 50s and 60s; the development and more recent retrenchment of a large slice of the region's defence and automotive sectors; and today, the massive structural shift into public services like education.asp , health and welfare , and into private business, financial, scientific and technical services and the tourism, retail and leisure markets.
Today, as in many other aspects of its character Lancashire has a highly diverse economic base with a strong mix of both international and indigenous companies from the likes of BAE Systems, British Energy, Leyland Trucks, Springfield Fuels and Rolls Royce to Matalan, Gold Medal Travel, Homeservices Claims Management and Computer Services Corporation. Compared with the backcloth of very large vertically integrated companies, often employing thousands of workers, that characterised the area 25-30-years ago, today 90% of local businesses are small, employing fewer than ten people and 54% of these are less than ten years old. A high number of these companies operate successfully in niche and often global markets. Manufacturing in Lancashire remains a key and highly valued wealth creating sector and accounts for a quarter of local output; through increased outsourcing and purchases each production job probably carries at least another one on its back in one way or another. The old sectors have largely given way to a much more productive, knowledge-intensive and higher technology industrial base. However, despite the continuing key role of production industry, including an active construction sector , as elsewhere in the UK it is services , particularly the commercial, business and technical services along with public-sector employment in areas like education, health and welfare that is today fuelling much of the new jobs growth. Across the sub-region more people are in work than ever before and conditions of virtually full employment exist in some areas.
Lancashire is today a very different place from what it was only a generation or two ago and is far removed from its traditional and somewhat gritty image. It is a record of achievement that testifies to Lancashire's resilience and positive response to change. All this is not to deny that the region continues to face a challenging future. There remain numerous local issues relating to the economic welfare of many of its residents still to be fully addressed together with associated concerns relating to social, health and environmental well-being in some parts of the region such as those detailed further below, as well as with those arising from the rapid aging of the population and the quality of much of the local infrastructure. Many of these are of a scale and nature more akin to those to be found in some of Britain's larger cities rather than those of a more traditional "shire" area. There are, too, global challenges in which Lancashire will be required to play its part. These will include not only the competitiveness of the region's industry and commerce but also the amelioration of the unprecedented movements of population and in adapting to and managing the key issue of climate change .
The current mood, particularly in the business community, is one of concern driven by the economic slowdown. After a long period of growth, Lancashire will have a tough time accommodating the myriad of economic, social and environmental issues that the future holds. The county's economic difficulties are far from being resolved and its economy, while more diverse and robust, still has significant structural weaknesses that may be cruelly exposed during a period of challenging economic conditions.
A step change will be necessary if Lancashire is to achieve an improvement in its relative position in the nation's economic ranking, but where does Lancashire have a competitive advantage to enable this to be achieved? Other areas of the country will looking to develop their local economies and will not be waiting around for Lancashire to close the gap.
As It IsPhotograph of Preston marina in modern Lancashire
The report primarily looks at Lancashire strengths and, weaknesses, and then considers opportunities and threats that are applicable to Lancashire but which may derive from factors that are external to the area. This is a useful framework for understanding and seeking to assess the nature of possible future changes that may, in this case, affect the economic, environmental and social well being of Lancashire.
The 13 Ambition Lancashire Community Strategy Themes form the primary means of classifying the information in the State of Lancashire Report, but the material is also classified to best fit the seven Lancashire Local Area Agreement Themes .
Please note that the Ambition Lancashire Community Strategy and the Lancashire Local Area Agreement both only cover the 12-district Lancashire County Council area. This State of Lancashire Report however also incorporates results for the two unitary authorities of Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool. Different organisations and partnerships have a variety of requirements and it is not practical to maintain two State of Lancashire Reports that both include and exclude the two unitary authorities. The (External) Lancashire Economic Partnership which manages the (External) Make It Lancashire website is a very important partner organisation that has the alternative requirement for information covering the broader 14 local authority Lancashire area. Wherever possible, the embedded links in the report incorporate work that presents information and analysis to cover both the Lancashire County Council and the broader Lancashire area.
In future, the State of Lancashire Report will endeavour to improve the links between the three distinct strands of Analysis, Policy Choices and Performance Indicators in order to better present a comprehensive area assessment. This objective is inline with future (External) future government policy that, from April 2009, will seek to attain independent assessments of the prospects for local areas and the quality of life with a particular emphasis on vulnerable people.
The second strand of 'Policy choices' is covered by the various strategic documents that take the results of local analysis and spell out what is to be done to improve the situation. The Ambition Lancashire Community Strategy is one of the most important overriding strategic documents.
The third strand 'Performance Indicators' involves monitoring changes over time to provide the evidence of whether the policy choices that have been made are having the desired effect. Central Government has recently set a revised list of (External) 198 priority measures for local government . This streamlined set of indicators reflects national priority outcomes for local authorities working alone or in partnership. In addition to this list of national indicators, there is also a range other local performance indicators that monitor progress towards achieving the Lancashire Community Strategy.
Once the results for the 198 national indicators for all local authorities are fully accessible via a central government website, it will be possible to better integrate the analysis contained in this State of Lancashire report, and on the Lancashire Profile website in general, with the national indicators. A small selection of research articles on this website already highlight the connections between their content and the relevant national indicator.
The link between the analysis leading to a set of policy options that are then monitored by a list of performance indicators is in practice not often as logical as the theory would suggest. The setting of a large number of national indicators by central government is liable not to adequately reflect specific areas of concern within Lancashire that are highlighted by the local analysis. This is where the other local indicators will come in to play.
The Executive Summary lists 10 of the most important issues of concern raised by the State of Lancashire report. The full report highlights many positive aspects, but the summary concentrates on significant problem areas that need to be addressed. The conclusions section mentions some of the local organisations that are addressing these issues.
1. The Rate of Growth of the Lancashire Economy
2. Job Creation Disparities within Lancashire
3. Poor Rates of New Business Formations
4. Business Premises
5. Very Poor Health Indicators in Parts of the County
6. Poor Housing Conditions
7. Significant Problems of Deprivation
8. The Needs of an Ageing Population
9. Perceptions of Lancashire Residents
10. Education
In terms of Gross Value Added, the rate of growth of the Lancashire economy has for a number of years lagged behind the national rate of change. The longer-term implication of this differential growth rate is quite substantial as the gap between the rate of change at the county and national levels continues to widen.
Within Lancashire, there are growing problems of job creation disparities , especially in parts of East Lancashire.
New business development is an important policy objective and for the VAT-registered business stock Lancashire has for a number of years failed to keep pace with the national rate of change.
Low industrial and commercial rental levels and rates of return act as a disincentive to new private sector speculative property development in many parts of the county.
A range of indicators reveal a number of problems. The most important, life expectancy continues to improve across all parts of Lancashire but in some of the Lancashire local authorities, male and female life expectancy at birth rates are amongst the worst in England and Wales.
Areas of Lancashire have high numbers of terraced properties and that results in significant numbers of dwellings classified within the lowest Council Tax Band A. This is a contributory factor to very high levels of unfit housing , particularly in a number of East Lancashire authorities.
The 2007 Index of Deprivation highlights a number of local authorities and much smaller areas in the county that have a range of significant problems. For the broader Lancashire area, six authorities are ranked in the bottom fifty by at least one of the six district level measures.
It is a well known that people are living longer and many pensioners enjoy a reasonable standard of living. A number of coastal areas in Lancashire are particularly attractive to the older generation looking for a good quality of life. A large proportion of the retired however have limited financial means and pension credit is claimed by many thousands in the county. High numbers of Pension Credit Claims are located within the inner-urban areas, even though these areas often do not have particularly large numbers of pensioners. The pensioners that reside in these areas are often those in most need of this benefit.
There are great variations in perceptions of the local area across Lancashire. Fylde and Ribble Valley districts are both in the top quartile of all council areas in England, while Blackpool, Rossendale, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn and Pendle are all in the lowest 25%. With only half of residents satisfied with their local area , Pendle (51%) has the third lowest score of all 387 local authority areas.
There is some evidence to suggest that fewer Lancashire residents are qualified qualified to degree level (NVQ level 4) is less that the national average. A major area of concern however is the low GCSE pass rate in some Lancashire authorities.
A range of public, private and voluntary sector organisations are working hard to address the above issues. It would not be possible to list them all but a selection of the most significant includes the following:
The economic-related issues discussed in points 1-4 are being tackled by the (External) Lancashire Economic Partnership , (External) Elevate , Lancashire County Developments Ltd , as part of the Lancashire Local Area Agreement and by the local district authorities.
Poor health indicators are the responsibility of a range of organisations. The health-related services run by Lancashire County Council - e.g. Adult and Community Services - and the work of the Primary Care Trusts - (External) North Lancashire , (External) Central Lancashire , (External) East Lancashire , (External) Blackburn with Darwen and (External) Blackpool - are of vital importance. The needs of an ageing population (point 8) are also the responsibility of these organisations.
(External) Elevate has a crucial responsibility in addressing poor housing conditions in East Lancashire (point 6), besides trying to tackle the problem of job disparities raised under point 2.
Deprivation (point 7), and the satisfaction of Lancashire residents with their local area (point 9) are issues that cannot just be the responsibility of just one or two organisations. They are affected by a range of economic, social and environmental issues that need to be addressed by a wide variety of organisations.
The Building Schools for the Future programme initially targeted the areas with the lowest GCSE pass rates, and should help with point number 10.
This page was compiled by Bryan Moulding .
All enquiries from the media should be sent to Corporate.Communications@lancashire.gov.uk .
Any other questions about the content of this page may be sent to EconInfo@lancashire.gov.uk .
For all enquiries about the county council's services , contact the Customer Service Centre on 0845 0530000 (01772 530000) or at Enquiries@css.lancscc.gov.uk .
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