By Aaron Barbour
I just wanted to flag up the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill currently going through the committee stage in the House at the moment. This bill comes out of the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) ‘Review of Sub-National Economic Development and Regeneration’, which included a proposal that a statutory duty is imposed upon all local authorities to assess their local economies.
To quote from BERR’s website:
“these reforms will put in place a legal and policy framework which will assist regions, sub-regions and local areas in responding to current economic difficulties, preparing for the upturn and strengthening jobs and business growth in all areas in the longer term.”
However if Regional Development Agencies and local Councils have to make a full economic assessment of their areas they will have to map and identify all economic activity. By all, I mean they must include activity they currently do not record, or find difficult to do so. We attempted to uncover some of this activity in our report on ‘The Uncounted‘ an investigation into the permanent residents of east London not officially recorded as living here; and through out Informal Economy Consultancy service we measure at a borough or ward level the extent of informal economic activity in those areas. If RDA’s and local Councils do not measure all economic activity they will be making under- or over-estimations, missing a crucial element of their economy, and therefore not dedicating the appropriate resources to support local residents and businesses – so crucial in today’s tough times.
The informal economy must be included within any local economic area assessment – to get a true picture of an area.We can help. Download more information about our Informal Economy Consultancy Service or contact me:
Aaron Barbour, LinksUK Research & Policy Manager
t: 020 7473 9666
e: aaron.barbour@community-links.org
