Sandwell Local Plan - Issues & Options Consultation

8. Supporting a Sustainable Economy

Building a strong, responsive and competitive economy is one of the three overarching objectives of the NPPF. This should be achieved by ensuring that sufficient land of the right type is available in the right place at the right time to support growth, innovation and improved productivity and by identifying and co-ordinating the provision of infrastructure.

In terms of job numbers, the three main employment sectors in Sandwell are retail and wholesale, manufacturing and health and social care. In terms of those sectors where Sandwell plays a stronger or more disproportionate role within the wider economy than the national average, the highest contributors are manufacturing (+111% greater than the national average); electricity, gas and air conditioning (+100% greater); water supply and waste management (+71% greater); transportation and storage (+59% greater); and retail and wholesale (+40% greater)^[32].

The Plan will need to set out the amount of employment land that is required over the period up to 2041. The evidence base for the employment land policies consists of a two stage Economic Needs Assessment (EDNA) and the Black Country Employment Area Review (BEAR). The EDNA provides an objective assessment of the industrial land needs for the Black Country, based upon an independent assessment of the area's economic development needs.

The EDNA identifies a need for 205.4 hectares of employment land over the Plan period, and that Sandwell has a supply of 69.9 hectares, resulting in a shortfall of 135.5 hectares to 2040^[33].

Key conclusions of the EDNA included: -

1. The Black Country was hit hard by COVID-19 but is expected to recover strongly and has the capacity to deliver significant growth.
2. Even pre-COVID, recent growth was achieved against a backdrop of a weak local skills base, low business start-up rates and low GVA per head in comparison with the West Midlands and UK averages.
3. Economic development strategies including the Strategic Economic Plan (SEP) and Local Industrial Strategy seek to address these challenges to accelerate growth of the local economy.
4. The Black Country employment land supply in 2020 was largely inherited from the Core Strategy and the existing SAD. The land supply is dominated by small sites.
5. Going forward, attracting high growth knowledge-based industries in line with the SEP ambitions will require the provision of more prestigious sites and high-quality spaces with good connectivity and easy access to key transport hubs.
6. The Black Country should look to accommodate a variety of business needs, including start-ups and smaller businesses. This means a mixed portfolio of sites will need to be made available, including large and small sites and spaces.
7. It is imperative to protect the existing supply of land to meet future needs that will arise from a high growth driven economy.

Ensuring that an adequate supply of employment land is maintained throughout the plan period will be essential in enabling long term balanced growth to be sustained and is therefore a key challenge. To address the above issues, employment policies should address the following: -

1. Allocate land for new development within Sandwell, to facilitate growth and diversification of the economy
2. Accommodate a variety of business needs including high technology manufacturing and logistics sectors.
3. Protect and enhance land and premises within existing employment areas where this provides for the needs of jobs and businesses.
4. Recognise that some sites will become unsuitable for continued employment uses and to facilitate their redevelopment to alternative uses.
5. Enable local communities to share the benefits of economic growth.

The Black Country Economic Development Needs Assessment (EDNA) has identified a short fall between employment land need and supply up to 2040. This shortfall is based on the demand requirement taking into account potential losses of land and opportunities for windfall development associated with the development of vacant and underused land within existing employment areas.

Sandwell's 'Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies Index 2020' report lists the 50 highest-growth companies in Sandwell, with all 50 of these companies having grown by more than 10% and the top 22 having grown by 20% - and having generated £2.2 billion in revenue. Ensuring companies such as these have premises to expand in within the Sandwell is critical to the area's economy – 44% are within the manufacturing sector and therefore reply upon employment land.

28) Questions – Employment Land Need

As stated in the 2022 EDNA the diversity of the economic sectors in the area and sectors of local employment stability and strength e.g. manufacturing and wholesale/distribution as well as retail and health, need to be accommodated in a way (and on sites) that both meets these sectors' current and future needs and ensures their sustained growth. New employment sectors are also emerging and their demand for employment land will also need to be met.

29) Questions – Sandwell's Economy

The primary focus for co-ordinated and sustained regeneration in Sandwell is in the Central Core Growth Area, which includes the key employment areas of the Borough. It will be the focus for the delivery of regeneration and renewal opportunities for employment.

The need for regeneration in Sandwell is at the heart of much of what the Council does, and it has delivered some innovative and important schemes already. The ongoing commitment to regeneration will continue across the Council as a whole, but the Issues and Options process gives us an opportunity to think about how else we might contribute to making Sandwell a better place to live, work and spend time.

Regeneration will include delivering new development / redevelopment in both industrial and residential areas. As part of these proposals, the Council will be looking at associated opportunities for delivering climate change mitigation and improving the physical environments that people occupy and use.

30) Question - Regeneration

Part of the borough's legacy of heavy industry is the sub-division of large industrial sites and premises that have then been occupied by smaller firms, creating clusters of smaller businesses. This can mean that potential new occupiers with a need for large buildings or sites are unable to locate in Sandwell because larger legacy sites are unavailable for single occupiers. We need to consider whether we should be supporting the change to smaller businesses across the borough or whether we should be identifying opportunities to maintain a stock of larger sites for single companies.

31) Question – Demand for employment sites

In addition to areas/sites being safeguarded for employment uses, we need to decide whether some types of employment generating non-industrial and warehousing uses, such as childcare facilities and small-scale food and drink outlets, may be permitted where it can be demonstrated robustly that they support, maintain or enhance existing business and employment functions.

32) Questions – Non-conforming Employment Uses

The employment land policies contained in the draft BCP set out the types of employment uses that would be permitted in the areas/sites allocated as strategic or local employment land. These sites would be safeguarded for

• light industrial employment uses (the research and development of products or processes or any industrial process that could be carried out in a residential area without causing detriment to the amenity of the area);
• general industry; and
• storage and warehousing.

Sandwell's SLP intends to carry this protection forward by including many aspects of the proposed BCP employment policies and adapting them to meet Sandwell's purposes.

Local employment sites are those areas where development is supported primarily for new or smaller-scale employment activity. In some cases, housing or other non- ancillary, non-employment uses may be considered on these sites but only where there is robust evidence to demonstrate they are no longer required for employment purposes.

Recent revisions to the national legislation governing changes of use (when buildings can be reused for different types of residential, community, commercial or professional uses without needing planning permission) means that in some cases buildings currently in use for local employment (effectively the light industrial employment use described above) can be reused for things like gyms and shops without needing planning permission.

In the past, local employment land in Sandwell has come under pressure from non-employment proposals, such as banqueting suites and other community uses. This has caused problems in some cases as the new uses have been proposed on sites adjacent to uses occupied by general employment uses. Having non-employment uses near heavy industry can cause problems for both sets of occupiers; the "agents of change" principle in the NPPF^[34] now requires the incomer to ensure that their activities do not adversely impact on adjacent established uses. As an example, incoming industrial users on appropriate and allocated industrial sites adjacent to community or leisure activities would have to use additional resources to ensure their activities did not impact on places used for social events. This in turn could mean potential industrial and employment-generating uses avoiding such sites on viability grounds.

In some locations large-scale commercial entertainment and community activities may be appropriate, assuming the likelihood of sufficient parking being available, and events being held during evenings and weekends when areas of employment uses are likely to be less busy. However, these types of activities will generally be more properly located in town and local centres, with good accessibility by public transport; they should be subject to a robust sequential test if they are being proposed outside centres.

In addition, there are other larger-scale activities that are not classed as employment uses (although in some cases they may employ significant numbers of people), but which require large premises away from housing areas or other more sensitive uses. These might include wholesale catering, larger indoor recreational and leisure uses and dog day-care for example.

33) Questions – Alternative Uses in Industrial Areas

We think an updated version of the SAD policy on training and recruitment will be sufficient. Reference to the Neighbourhood Employment and Skills Plan will need to be removed from an updated SLP policy as it no longer exists. This revised policy will be aligned to the Council's Social Value reference of social, environmental and economic elements and should include developments of over ten units or more of housing and /or 10,000 sqm of commercial floorspace in creating local jobs and providing opportunities for skills development.

34) Question – Training and Recruitment