Renewal schemes ‘must do more to employ locals’
New regeneration projects must make a greater effort to benefit communities by employing local people and providing training, according to MPs and peers.
They called for councils, health trusts and other public sector agencies to set an example by promoting the use of local labour on their property development projects. Planners should place a greater emphasis on assessing a planning application’s potential to create employment in a regeneration area.
The All Party Urban Development Group called for the protection of local jobs through contracts agreed before building commences and section 106 agreements. This would remove the need to hire from abroad.
The group said more measures are needed to protect communities during the recession because unemployment in the UK is expected to surge past three million next year (currently 1.92 million people are without work). Wahed Nazir, assistant director of regeneration at Birmingham Council, said providing training was an essential part of boosting local employment through regeneration schemes.
‘The companies need the labour force and if we can put in bespoke training and engage those client groups that we are targeting it makes it more feasible for the company to recruit those appropriate groups.’
by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
