Regenration

Regional Redevelopment


Overview

The term most commonly associated with the process of developing urban governance further is regeneration that involves initiatives to raise the profile of the region. The impact of a particular mode of governing the city, planning it, redesigning and building it are all part of the spatial practice and the representations that it generates (Lefebvre, 1991). Generally redevelopment involves adding new elements to the infrastructure of redeveloping areas in decline; such as introducing shopping mall, theatres and galleries expanding road accesses and airport; rebuilding old industrial areas; loft conversions; waterside housing developments; new luxury city centre apartments and alongside them cafes, restaurants, galleries and all of the things associated with high level urban living that brings together both faces of the city namely town and gown. Increasingly prestige developments, place imaging, spectacles and branding become as much to the fore as new building or the development of urban infrastructures. The urban governance is shifting from mangerialism to entrepreneurialism (Harvey, 1989) exploiting local resources, harnessing financial and information advantages, developing consumer driven local economy and pressing on governmental redistributed resources.

Area of this assessment, the South East England is unique in many ways. Its rate of development is higher and faster than for most regions. Water resource issues are more pressing. The region’s wealth leads, in some cases, to more unsustainable behaviour than in other regions. This paper elaborates an overview of Oxford as part of the south east England and its set up, organizationally. Then a brief of economic and population context are projected to inform findings utilized for regional development purposes and ultimately categorizing available resources for further studies and devising an action plan.



Oxford in Context

Oxford structure is hidden in the gently rolling country side of middle England as you descend from the Headington roundabout toward Magdalen Bridge - keeping its secrets within the spires of towers, colleges and university buildings. It is obvious that scholars are not preoccupied with developing retail businesses, shops, malls, even cafes (open cafes are missing) in the city where education is prime motivating factor. Although, Oxford is home to the oldest museum in the world, the Ashmolean, surprisingly, the town seem less likely artistically enthusiasm. Townfalks don’t seem to know much about the university, but university continues to exert a huge influence on the economic life of the city, and this is reflected in the nature of new employment, with increasing development of medical and industrial technology as well as printing and publishing.

There are social divisions in the city between affluent north housing the dons of the expanding university and working class Cowley that is the industrial section of the city. The cluster effects allow an easier comparison of the various sectors of the city’s economy. Studies have shown that in general, firms grow faster in a cluster that is strong in their own sector, while this growth is attenuated if the cluster is strong in other sectors. In the setting of oxford there is opportunity for expansion of educational cluster, such as vocational training which will benefit from university’s links with world of work, as studies show there is growing demand for this.

The political agenda post-1997 prioritised universities’ role in economic development in, the 1998 White Paper, Our Competitive Future: Building the Knowledge-Driven Economy; the region with the creation of the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) in 1999 and clusters (White Paper on Business Clusters published in 2001). There is potential environment for developing business and educational opportunities in the presence of Oxford University and its colleges, this world famous institution.

There is an agreement that knowledge-based economies are innovation driven, and that knowledge, technological innovation and industrial competitiveness are linked (Oughton et al 2002). Successful innovation happens when individuals are sufficiently enthused by their immediate and local environment to invest the effort required to take new ideas forward; it is all about hearts and minds. As in Cambridge, the Oxfordshire high-tech economy has grown rapidly since the mid-1980s thus presenting considerable challenges to the urban infrastructure (transport and housing) and is creating pressures within the labour market from skills shortages. The county can be accounted for the highest-ranked EU region for high-tech services, and is the fastest growing high-tech region in the UK. One study found that high tech sectors now accounts for some 12 per cent of the county’s workforce which include biotechnology, ICT and engineering. The database is currently being updated.

Currently 21,700 VAT-registered businesses are located in Oxfordshire. The data therefore provides an up to date snapshot of the characteristics of businesses in Oxfordshire, and also allows trends over the last two years to be examined. Results can be disaggregated by age of business, size of business (employment sizeband), industry sector and urban/rural location. Over one third of the county’s businesses are in the real estate and business services sector, and growing rapidly in the county in the last few years. Micro-businesses, with less than 10 employees, have seen the largest growth in Oxfordshire since March 2004, accounting for 83% of the increase in the number of VAT-registered enterprises. All of this growth has taken place in the smallest businesses, employing fewer than five staff; numbers of enterprises in the 5-9 employee range has actually declined slightly in the last two years in Oxfordshire.

Updated residence based labour market survey (August 2006) from the Annual Population Survey (APS) released by the ONS provided information on population characteristics, economic activity, employment and unemployment, qualifications and training. An estimated 83% of Oxfordshire’s working age residents were economically active (employed or unemployed) in 2005, compared with an average of 82% in the South East and 78% in England. The latest results show that since March 2005, for certain businesses growth has been concentrated mainly in rural Oxfordshire.

Labour market participation and employment rates in Oxfordshire are above the South East and national average. Qualification levels are also above average in most of the county, but are relatively weak in Cherwell and West Oxfordshire. The primary role of the university system appears to be as a conduit for bringing potential high quality undergraduate human capital into the region that creates important migration effects.

The continued population growth in Oxford City is the most notable feature, with almost a 10% increase recorded since mid-2000. This is the fastest rate of population growth over this period amongst all 67 local authority districts in the South East. Proportion of working age people in Oxfordshire on key benefits is only half the national average, although numbers on benefits has increased slightly in the last 12 months. Numbers of people in Oxfordshire with personal debt problems are also below the South East and national average.

The amount of empty commercial and industrial property in Oxfordshire is below the South East and national average, and has declined in recent years; while Average property price in Oxfordshire continues to rise, and is currently £260,400, representing an increase of 10% on the equivalent quarter in 2005. Property prices in the county are currently 10% above the South East average and 31% above the average for England and Wales.

Release of 2001 Census data for all urban areas in Oxfordshire, defined as settlements with at least 1,500 residents (released on the NOMIS website in August 2006). Census statistics are available for 50 separate “urban areas” in Oxfordshire. This geography is based on the physical extent of built up areas, and provides an alternative to the use of ward level data in obtaining statistics on the county’s towns and other settlements.

Small and Medium Enterprises SMEs

Although difficult to quantify, the socio economic and political structure of the British society had considerable impact by small and medium-sized enterprises SMEs. Changes and improvements in the British small business perspective was heralded since 1979, after the oil shocks, expanding in proportion with vast public and private funds allocated to it. There is however a growing body of empirical knowledge, which argues that the majority of owner/managers lack the necessary skills and competencies to accurately analyse market conditions or to speedily reallocate their scarce resources to maximise economic output (Matlay, 2001).

Government sponsored initiatives represent the most important source of training for small business owner/managers. In practice, it is suggested that smaller firms are not much aware of the existence and purpose of training initiatives and tend to provide less formal training than their larges counterparts (Storey and Westhead, 1995). Nevertheless, it was found that initiatives that incorporated specific small business sphere of activity (ie. Training and Enterprise Councils TECs) proved to be more successful in the SME sector than the more general training and support schemes available in recent years.

One major problem faced in trying to generate interest of SMEs in learning and development (and in generating small business growth) lies with the career motivations and personal expectations of individual owners and managers. Many small firms adopt practices that are antithetical to efficiency and growth (Gray 1993). Indeed the most common small business ambition is for independence and autonomy rather than profits and growth (Gray 1998). Hence it is important not to understate the extent of learning support (and in some cases a cultural shift) required to make this approach applicable in a range of other settings.

In the public sector where the availability of funds, time and training programmes is high compared to the private sector learning philosophy has not been prevailing. While work-related learning demonstrates a very strong social dimension, studies show that SMEs act collectively therefore we need to understand more about their positioning within supply chains and other networks and their impacts. The main responses from employers to having hard-to-fill vacancies were to increase recruitment advertising; expand recruitment channels; increase salaries; and increase training (in 40 per cent of workplaces). Skill gaps were mainly due to a lack of experience in those recently recruited or a failure to develop and train staff.

There are a high proportion of small companies in the ICT sector. Significant numbers of particular groups of ICT staff are self-employed or work as independent contractors. Job turnover is significantly higher than in other occupations (Connor et al., 2001). UK assessment of ICT skill needs identified main skill gaps to include lack of problem solving, lack of team working and communication skills, customer handling skills / customer service and particularly IT consultancy skills to understand other people’s businesses to meet client’s IT needs. High level technical skills coupled with the ability to communicate effectively in the service of business development are in high demand in the IT sector. Studies found that one aspect of a typical technical graduate career in England is their high mobility between jobs that helps spread tacit knowledge about working methods and learning how to apply what they have learned in different contexts,

The strategic and operational contexts of SMEs have been influenced by the changing patterns of innovation within supply systems for complex products in the automotive, and other engineering industries in the last decade. Recently large companies have sought to develop much stronger links with a smaller number of suppliers in ‘their supply chains’. SMEs in engineering face with issues of intense pressures result from the strategies, tactics and operational methods of the large companies that dominate their markets, particularly where these are linked to supply chain restructuring. One study of engineering companies found that the use of a wide range of learning methods helped improve commitment towards learning. These methods included: participation in production process improvement reviews and implementation; Master Engineer workshops; group discussions; assignments; portfolio-building; discussions with tutor; use of computer-mediated communications for discussions, document transfer and tutor feedback.


Vocational Education and Training VET

VET mainly created aiming to promote participation for groups that show low participation and to minimise their social exclusion from a ‘learning society’. The promotion of a learning society rests among others on educational/training institutions and labour market institutions. This include transformation of the educational system more towards learning and less towards credentials, the accreditation of formal and informal competencies, the opening of more horizontal and hierarchical routes in the education and training system, the stronger connection between VET programmes and the labour market (and not the transformation of the educational system to fit production purposes) are some of the required steps.

Vocational training schemes for higher professionals are addressing professional needs for complex problems that general practitioner registrars need to surmount to enter general practice partnership, immediately on completing vocational training. While confident about consulting with patients, the business side of practice and general practitioners' growing responsibilities in the NHS are a worry. Moreover number of post-vocational training schemes has appeared addressing recruitment problems. Other areas include raising awareness of lack of support for impaired people for retention in work after difficulties in work and remaining unemployed. The National Vocational Rehabilitation Association has provided a forum for practitioners working in disability and employment since 1992 to address the issues regarding disabled people's employment situation that exists now. The current review will be designed to cover those working across all sectors and improve the collaboration between all concerned parties (Leach, 2001). New areas of focus are established such as climate change and its health damaging impacts need to be explored in development of vocational training.

Since there is a shift out of traditional manufacturing toward service based economy, there is a need for employees with multi-skilling, problem solving, team working, with knowledge and learning that is viewed as the key drivers of competitive advantage in high value added global markets (Piore and Sabel 1984, Murray 1989). University and training organizations need to work with companies with a learning culture on Management level to develop coherent, advanced and challenging training programmes that are expanding and adapting consistently with the needs of the world of work. The co-operation of training provider and companies is vital for the success of programmes where all including students have a say in terms of the content and aims, devising new ways of initiating institutional co-operation between VET and local companies. Educators and instructors can be recruited from companies in the relevant occupational area.

The characteristics of companies and employees personal ambitious are both grounds for competitive businesses to benefit from the VET. The economics of vocational training, in itself has become an important political issue. Economic research concerning the skill structure of the employed population and based upon official statistical sources utilises occupationally classified data as a proxy for skills. The key to the skill development process is the identification of a specific knowledge/skill need in working environment – and formal training activities that can satisfy such specific needs. One approach to promote VET, is to design tailor-made programmes and policies according to the specific needs of each situation. It is suggested that there is a need for a platform of generic skills (i.e. transferable skills that can be used across occupational groups), on which to build a range of more technical and job specific skills while establishing far greater cooperation between training providers in the county. Teaching plans and learning process have to take real-life work contexts into account aiming to provide practically-oriented education and training for students.



Learning Need Assessment

In Britain £4.5b is spent on training each year by employers, but this may not be used effectively. In 2001 the spend on training in the USA was estimated to be $56.8b and 50% of this training had not been used one year later and was unlikely to ever be used! A carefully designed Learning Needs Analysis can prevent skills shortages and the wasting of finance on inappropriate or unnecessary training. Conducting a learning needs analysis helps an organization to be more competitive: learning faster than competitors, efficient use of scarce resources, investing in people, tap into people ability to learn and be more productive.

- 22% of employers say that the skills of their workforce are not of the standard required. (2003 National Employers Skills Survey)
- The lack of basic skills costs a typical business, of 50 employees, £165,000 per year (Ernst and Young)
- UK productivity is 13% below that of other major economies (Office of National Statistics)

Many activities within an organization are routine or planned in advance and therefore should be regularly assessed in order to determine the extent to which training and development are necessary. This checklist can be used as a prompt to identify areas that may require training to ensure smooth transitions and prevent bottlenecks (Oxford Univ):
Appraisal, Assessment Centres, Audit, Critical Incidents, Downsizing, Induction, Training, Internal promotions, Internal transfers, New equipment, New legislation New markets, New procedures, New products, New standards, New systems, Other training events, Performance Management, Skills shortages, Succession Planning
Training Programmes - Skills Checklist Below is a list of the main training areas which are to be found in many organizations. It can be used as a menu to identify areas that may not currently be addressed such as: Accounting, Appraisal Skills Training, Assertiveness Workshop, Business Communication, Business Ethics, Business Strategy, Business Writing Skills, Career Development, Change Management, Coaching & Mentoring Skills, Conflict Management, Consulting – Internal and External, Continuous Improvement, Creativity, Customer Service training, Customer Relationship Management, Diversity Training, Drug / Substance Abuse, Emotional Intelligence, Employment Law, Equal Opportunities Training, Executive Leadership, Financial Skills, Goal Setting, Harassment Human Resource Development, Human Resource Management, Induction Programme, Interviewing Skills/Techniques, Leadership, Managing Conflict, Managing Difficult People, Managing Resources, Marketing Introduction to, Meeting Skills, Motivation, Negotiating Skills, Performance Appraisal, Personal Assistant Skills, Personal Efficiency Programme, Presentation Skills, Project Management, Quality Management, Selling Essentials, Small Business Management, Strategic Management, Stress Management, Supervisory Skills, Supply Chain Management, Report Writing, Team Building, Team Skills, Team Leader Skills, Telemarketing Skills, Time Management, Train the Trainer, Training Skills, Workplace Safety, Workplace Violence

Data Resources


The research method will be based on case studies, life stories and focus group discussions intended to deepen understanding of the survey results. To identify skill gaps and devise an Action Plan, series of interviews to study individual biographies can inform different patterns of participation and illustrates different types of attitudes towards continuing vocational education, training and learning that could give further insight into reasons for participation in particular forms of vocational training. This helps distinct various forms of learning and development to be identified to enhance productivity and efficiency; whether greatest use are made of formal VET provision; opportunities for learning while working; or self-directed learning.

Interviews should discuss the array of learning experience including learning while working in a job with considerable challenges; learning through working with someone with acknowledged expertise; learning through working in multi-disciplinary teams; learning through organised reflection and review; learning through the application of knowledge learned in VET to work activities; learning through working with suppliers; learning through exposure to other working environments; learning by doing without any formal training.

There is a need for a holistic approach to data collection and analysis within multi-agency environments to overcome fragmentation of information, and thereby improve the policy-making process. From different databases variables need to be extracted to examine employment, representing the size of the industry; firm type, categorising a company amongst its peers; economic data, illustrating cluster economic strength; and regional characteristics, showing general cluster strength, Cluster formation, economic benefits that flow from clustering, measures of employment characteristics of each region, employment diversity index, finally to draw educational need assessment and vocational training plans.





In addition to wealth of research resources available in Oxford University, databases from various origins need to be merged, such as:

1) FAME, extracting employment data for firms

2) Business Density, Business Formation Rate, Business Survival Rate
Small Business Service, ONS Regional Trends Database,

3) Clusters formation as geographical agglomeration of technologically related companies - the relative economic performance of clusters

4) County councils database and development plans (Oxfordshire County Council’s company database)

5) Herfindhal index based on the variety of employees in different sectors (This variable will determine whether a diverse environment benefited firm growth; also informative in shortage of works).

6) Firm sizes: turn overs, and other variables for firm sizes

7) Taking measures of small and very young companies that are excluded from the database

8) Population density in the analysis to control for a scale effect (ONS, the British office), Total Population, by age, gender and ethnic group, and Population by Socio-Economic Group, migration and population forcast

9) Measure of the amount spent on R&D in each region of the UK, ONS, Annual Business Inquiry (e.g. the Greater London and the region comprising Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire spent more than £1bn in research and development in 1997). A current OEO (Oxford Economic Observatory) project is focusing on the R&D activities of multi-national companies in Oxfordshire.

10) DTI Regional Competitiveness Indicators; Product and Process Innovation, Percentage of firms introducing new or significantly improved products or processes during the last three years, DTI Community Innovation Survey (CIS)

11) DTI sub-regional Business Competitiveness Indicators. These are similar to the Regional Competitiveness Indicators, but provide data at local authority district level;

12)The set of Public Service Agreement Floor Target Indicators monitored by the
Neighbourhood Renewal Unit, which also provide data at local authority district level;

13)The set of indicators developed by the Countryside Agency to monitor conditions in rural economies in England (State of the Countryside indicators).

14) Labour Force Survey data and Labour Productivity (GVA per Worker)

15) Average Household Income

16) Average Gross Weekly Earnings, source of data from New Earnings Survey

17) Employment Area, employment growth and Number of Residents in Employment, Breakdown of Employment by Industry, Breakdown of Employment by Occupation, (ONS, Annual Business Inquiry), Claimant Unemployment, identifying unemployment “hotspots”, ODPM, Indices of Multiple Deprivation

18) Travel to work mode and distance

19) House price, land registry data, homelessness, ODPM, housing statistics,

20) Qualification Levels – Adult Population, Basic skills and training activity, Percentage of adult residents with specific qualification levels (including % with degree level qualifications and % with no qualifications) Data Source ONS, 2001 Census & 1991 Census, Participation in Education/Training – 16/17 Year Olds (Department for Education & Science)

21) Availability of key services, through percentage of population within specific distances of key services & facilities, Market Towns Healthchecks

22) Super Output Areas, allows small, localised, pockets of deprivation within relatively affluent wards to be identified.

23) The new data for high tech sectors will be published by OEO (Oxford Economic Observatory in Enterprising Oxford (III) in December 2006); it has undertaken two studies of labour markets and is about to conduct a more extensive study which will examine the supply side of the Oxfordshire labour market. 1-Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Learning and Skills Council (April 2002-August 2002) ‘The labour market potential of over 50s Scientists and Engineers in the MKOB region’.2- Technicians: Planning for the next generation of skills’ The Oxford Trust/Oxford2Cambridge Arc (January to August 2004); Measuring the performance of Oxfordshire’s academic spin-offs (2004/2005), Public Research High-Tech spin-offs: measuring performance and growth, December 2005

24) Studying economic networks activity: - How many networks?- What are their objectives?
- In which domain are they based?- What do they deliver? - Where are the gaps?

25) EGov website, ‘Excellence in new venture creation: the Oxfordshire model’

26) NOP (2001), ICT Skill Survey, London: NOP

Reference has also been made to the broad themes in the current Economic Development Strategy for Oxfordshire (OEP, 2001), – competitiveness and innovation, sustainable development and social inclusion.


E-Sources:
www.statistics.gov.uk
www.statistics.gov.uk/geography
www.statistics.gov.uk/neighbourhood
www.neighbourhood.gov.uk/fti
www.nomisweb.co.uk,
www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/facts
www.oxonvbc.co.uk
www.odpm.gov.uk
www.dfes.gov.uk
www.lsc.gov.uk/mkob
www.basic-skills.co.uk
www.sbs.gov.uk
www.dti.gov.uk
www.isis-innovation.com
www.landreg.gov.uk
www.odpm.gov.uk
www.countryside.gov.uk
www.defra.gov.uk







Oxford Univ introducing sites which are involved with education, training and development:

- Learning Need Assessment, Oxford Univ, http://tall.conted.ox.ac.uk/lnat/advantages.php
- American Society for Training and Development: www.astd.org
- Benchmarking: www.benchmarking.gov.uk
- Business Link: www.businesslink.gov.uk
- CEDEFOP - The European Centre for The Development of Vocational Training: www.cedefop.eu.int
- Department for Education and Skills: www.dfes.gov.uk
- Department of Trade and Industry: www.dti.gov.uk
- European Training Village: www.trainingvillage.gr
- European Training Foundation: www.etf.eu.int
- European Foundation for Quality Management: www.efqm.org
- International Labour Organization: www.ilo.org
- Investors in People: www.iipuk.co.uk
- Learning and Skills Council: www.lsc.gov.uk
- Learning and Skills Development Agency: www.lsda.org.uk
- Sector Skills Development Agency: www.ssda.org.uk


Other useful websites:

National Online Manpower Information System (NOMIS) www.nomisweb.co.uk
Government Office for the South East – www.go-se.gov.uk
South East England Regional Assembly – www.southeast-ra.gov.uk
South East England Development Agency – www.seeda.co.uk
Banbury Chamber of Commerce – www.banburytown.co.uk/business/coc
Oxfordshire Economic Partnership – www.oep.org.uk
Oxfordshire Chamber of Commerce – www.oxfordcity.co.uk/coc

Oxfordshire Districts:
Cherwell District Council – www.cherwell-dc.gov.uk
Oxford City Council – www.oxford.gov.uk
South Oxfordshire District Council – www.southoxon.gov.uk
Vale of White Horse District Council – www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk
West Oxfordshire District Council – www.westoxon.gov.uk

Oxfordshire Sectors:
Oxfordshire Bioscience – www.oxbiosci.org.uk
OXIT – www.oxit.org.uk – organisation representing IT companies in Oxfordshire.
Oxmedianet – www.oxmedianet.net – organisation representing media (including new
media) companies in Oxfordshire.





References:
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