your Lancashire

The Local Assessment for Preston

This summary offers a snapshot of some of the most important economic, social and environmental factors in Preston district with links through to the source information. The information has been allocated to one of the seven themes identified in the Lancashire Local Area Agreement.

The core information included in this assessment has been chosen by referring to the guidance on preparing a local economic assessment on the Improvement and Development Agency website.

The Seven Themes:

1. People and Communities
2. Economic Development
3. Children and Young People
4. Community Safety
5. Environment
6. Health and Wellbeing
7. Older People

Introduction

Preston is an authority in Central Lancashire that covers 142 square kilometers and in 2009 had a population of 134,600. From an historic point of view there have been dramatic changes and the pace of future change is liable to increase.

Preston was granted 'city' status in 2002 and is the centre for local government administration in the area. It is also the sub-regional headquarters for a number of private and other public sector organisations. Motorway and rail connections make the city easily accessible from most parts of Lancashire and beyond.

Over recent years the local university has grown in to one of the largest in the UK and has had a significant impact on the regeneration of the core urban centre of Preston. The university supports a selection of scientific centres of excellence in the authority. The former docks area has seen major developments whilst significant numbers of people have moved back in to the city centre to live in new apartments.

The city is an important retail centre whilst to the north of the town centre is the popular Deepdale Centre retail park.

A major development opportunity to the north Preston is the former Whittingham Hospital site.

In common with other large conurbations there are significant areas of deprivation that present a real challenge to community cohesion.

2012 will be the year of the next Preston Guild. Held every 20 years, the guild dates back to the granting of Preston's first charter by King Henry in 1179.

Popular visitor attractions in Preston include the Harris Museum and Art Gallery and the Museum of Lancashire.

The authority incorporates a rural area to the north of Preston that forms part of the Forest of Bowland and which includes Beacon Fell Country Park.

A major new development by the Wildlife Trust is the 112 hectares Brockholes Quarry site next to junction 31 of the M6. It will be the hub of a network of wetland sites in the North West and should prove to be a popular visitor attraction.

1. People and Communities

The overall population has seen a reasonable rate of growth since 2001 but it has not kept pace with increases at the county, regional and national levels.

It is estimated that between 2008 and 2033, the population of Preston is predicted to increase by 9.1% (England = 18.0%).

Of particular note in Preston are the low population percentages in the two older age-groups, whilst the 15-24 age-group has a much higher percentage than the national average. The presence of the large university in central Preston has a strong impact on the age distribution in the area.

When looking at middle-layer super output areas of Preston it is possible to see that the area covering St Peters and Adelphi, where large number of university students are housed, has increased by 14.8% between 2001 and 2008, the eighth largest rise in the broader Lancashire area. However the area of Ingol East and Haslam Park recorded a fall of 5.8%.

In 2008/09 there were 1,710 registrations by foreign nationals in Preston. This was 340 fewer than in the previous year (a decrease of 17%). Most people (560) registering were Polish. The second largest group (360 people) were Indian.

Figures are available for internal population migration estimates at the local authority level by five-year age-groups.

The Place Survey results for 2008/09 in Preston reveal that 78% of residents are satisfied with their local area as a place to live. This is only slightly below the averages for the Lancashire County Council area (79%) and for England as a whole (80%).

Preston has a high proportion of its housing stock in lowest category 'A' Council tax band, possibly due to the high number of terraced houses within the city.

The district in 2006 had a percentage of unfit dwellings (5.3%) that was noticeably in excess of the England average of 4.2%, but well below the very high rates recorded in a number of other Lancashire authorities.

The authority has for a number of years recorded average house prices that almost exactly match the changing level of house prices at the Lancashire level.

The 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation reveals that of the 32,482 Lower Super Output Areas (SOAs) in England, Preston had seven SOAs in the 1,000 lowest ranked areas. One of the five SOAs that together form Ribbleton Ward was the lowest ranked SOA in the authority (87). Two of the other SOAs in the ward were also in the bottom 1,000 in the country.

2. Economic Development

The contrast between the sluggish/ negative employment growth rates in parts of the county, and authorities in Central Lancashire is most apparent. Preston has recorded a solid rate of employment growth over recent years that was above the national average.

The total unemployment rate in the authority is above the Lancashire average. At the ward level there are some particularly high unemployment rates.

In 2009, there were 5,355 active enterprises in Preston. This was the largest number out of the 14 Lancashire authorities.

The authority has very good road and rail links to neighbouring towns and cities and further afield. A wide variety of employment opportunities are provided by a range of local employers. Red Scar is one of the important business estates in the authority, and the website also highlights the Tustin Court development down at the former docks.

Eckersley is a firm of chartered surveyors and property consultants that details on its website a large range of commercial sites that are available in the authority.

An iconic Lancashire company that has its headquarters in north Preston is Booths. The family company has been in existence since 1847, and has supermarkets across Lancashire and beyond. It actively seeks to support local producers and maintains a profitable niche position in the enormously competitive area of food retailing.

There are a number of service sectors that are important local employers in the area including wholesale and retail, transport, storage and communication, financial and insurance activities, real estate activities, public administration and defence and the health sector.

High employment levels in the service sector mean that that the authority has by far the largest amount of office space of any Lancashire authority. The role of the city as a retail centre is also reflected in the commercial and industrial floorspace results. The average rateable value for retail space in the authority is the most expensive of all 14 Lancashire local authorities, but the figure is however noticeably lower than the England average.

In addition to the county council's major presence in the centre of Preston, public sector employment in the authority is supplemented by the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service HQ in Fulwood and HM Revenue & Customs.

Average earnings.asp in Preston are below the county and GB averages, and negative effects from commuter flows mean that wage rates in the authority are higher by place of work in comparison to place of residence.

At the ward level, there are very marked income variations between the most and least affluent wards in the district. Wealthy rural areas have income levels that contrast sharply with wards in the core urban centre. A number of Preston wards have income levels that are below the county average.

A large number of incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance and employment and support allowance claimants, whilst housing benefit claimant rates are above the national level.

The Annual Population Survey includes local authority estimates of the working-age population by level of National Vocational Qualification. In Preston in 2007, the proportion of the working age in the authority qualified to NVQ level 4 is estimated to above the national average.

3. Children and Young People

The teenage conception rate in Preston is well above national and county levels.

Road traffic accident numbers and rates for children killed or seriously injured are published at the local authority level.

For the 2007/08 academic year, the percentage of pupils in the authority achieving at least five GCSEs grades A*-C of 63.2% was below the England average 65.6%.

Preston College is said to be one of the largest colleges in England and has two campuses in the town. Cardinal Newman is a catholic sixth form college situated on a campus just a few minutes walk from Preston town centre.

Based in the heart of Preston, the University of Central Lancashire has a staff of 3,000 and attracts more than 32,000 full and part-time students. It is one of the largest universities in the UK, and over a relatively short period of time has become a serious player in higher education, having made a virtue of widening access.

There is a substantial amount of information and analysis available on children and young people at the county, district and even smaller area levels that together present a wealth of material on health, wellbeing and academic standards. It includes the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) achievement and attainment tables. Our small area profiles contain quick links to the Lancashire ward level information provided by the DCSF. Ofsted inspection reports are a useful source of local information.

The DCSF results highlight amongst other things the steady improvements in pupil-teacher ratios across most authorities in Lancashire and the substantial increase in the numbers of teaching assistants and support staff.

The outcomes for children and young people report for Preston is one of 12 district reports updated regularly by the county council. All the reports present details under the five headings of health, safety, enjoy and achieve, positive contribution, and economic wellbeing. Please also see the complementary document that considers children with special educational needs in the authority.

The Children and Young People Directorate provided the following summary of information contained in the outcomes report.

The infant mortality rate (deaths of infants of less than 12 months of age) has been relatively high in Preston but has improved and moved closer to the national average. The proportions of babies of less than 2.5 kilograms in weight has been significantly worse than the national average for several years but this may have been affected by the ethnic composition of the local population with babies from some ethnic groups tending to have lower birthweights.

Rates of dental decay in children in the city have tended to be much worse than the national average.

The proportion of children in reception class in Preston who were found to be obese improved in 2008/09 and was below county and national average rates. The proportion of children in year 6 that were obese increased and was worse than the county average rate but better than the national rate.

Levels of absenteeism from school and persistent absenteeism were above the county average in 2007/08 and provisional data for 2008/09 suggests that the rate of permanent exclusions from secondary schools in the city was higher than county and national rates.

Preston's schools reported the highest number of racist incidents in the county in 2007/08.

The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals in Preston was above the county average in 2009 and the proportion of 16 to 18 year olds not in employment, education or training in Preston tended to run above the county average in 2008/09.

The county council's Lancashire schools website lists schools in Preston district.

Each district authority in the county council area has a Local Children's Trust Partnership.

The county council's Young People's Service website has an activity and organisations search facility that lists a wide range of options for young people in each 12 districts within the county council area.

4. Community Safety

All recorded crime in Preston has reduced by 13.5% but is still above the regional and national averages.

A review of the community safety figures for 2008/9 shows that violence against the person is a particular problem, with a rate of over 23.2 crimes per thousand population, compared with 16.5 for England and Wales but has seen a reduction of 9% from the previous year. In total, 23% of violent crime in Preston is thought to be related to domestic violence. Alcohol is another factor which contributes to violent crime. According to the health and wellbeing traffic lights, Preston has above average rates of binge drinking and alcohol related stays in hospital. This is borne out by the Big Drink Debate where 24% of respondents said that they had drunk a harmful or hazardous amount of alcohol in the previous week. However, 28.3% of respondents to the Place Survey 2008 felt that drunk and rowdy behaviour was a problem in their local area, which was slightly below the England and Wales average of 29% and 31.9% of respondents felt that drug use or drug dealing was a problem, which was just above the England and Wales average of 30.5%.

There were 27.1 crimes of Criminal Damage, including arson, per thousand population in 2008/9. Although this figure was above the North West and England and Wales average it represents a reduction of 792 crimes on the previous year. The fire service also recorded an above average rate of both primary and secondary fires. In particular, deliberate fires in vehicles were a particular problem in 2008/9 with 103 incidents. The rate per thousand population of accidental dwelling fires is higher in Preston than the county average but the number of fires has reduced by 10% between 2007/8 and 2008/9.

There is a strong link between crime and anti-social behaviour and deprivation, and Preston has some of the most deprived areas in the country.

The Vulnerable Localities Index identifies a number of lower super output areas in the authority that are vulnerable to problems of community cohesion.

23% of respondents to the Place Survey 2008 felt that anti-social behaviour was a problem in their local area, which was above the England and Wales average of 20%. 76% of respondents felt that their local area is a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together, which is the same as the England and Wales average.

Preston has one of the six prisons in Lancashire.

For details on community safety in your neighbourhood, please enter your postcode into MADE Public.

5. Environment

Preston has good motorway links, with the M6 which was the longest motorway in Britain. The Preston By-pass was the first section of the motorway to be completed and was December 1958.

The authority has an issue regarding relatively poor air quality in the highly urbanised central core area, but this is not as serious as can be found in other parts of the county where close proximity to the motorway network and industrial areas combine to give even poorer rates.

The road casualty rate in Preston, at 7.1 per 1,000 people in 2008, was the highest by far of all Lancashire authorities and well in excess of the England average of 4.0. The county council's road safety engineering group's web pages list a number of local road safety schemes in the authority.

There are three park-and-ride sites that help to reduce the amount of car traffic in central Preston.

The city centre bus station is at the heart of the local bus network. By far the major local operator is Stagecoach which in January 2009 which took over services previously operated by Preston Bus. Other local operators include Lancashire United and Fishwicks

Rail station usage figures confirm that Preston is a major station on the west coast mainline. Virgin Trains operates services to London that on average now take just 2 hours 15 minutes. Other services are provided by Northern Rail and TransPennine Express.

The Lancashire Local Transport Plan is the strategic transport document for the wider area and contains many references to transport issues in the authority. See also the Lancashire and Cumbria rail route utilisation strategy.

In December 2009, the Department for Transport announced plans to electrify three rail routes in the North West. The £200m programme includes the 25 mile route between Manchester and the West Coast Mainline at Euxton, and the 17 mile route between Blackpool North and Preston. This will allow a number of local services that pass through Preston, and which are currently operated by diesel trains, to be replaced by quicker and more reliable electric trains.

The Ribble Steam Railway is a visitor attraction that opened in 2005, on a site at the former Preston docks. It has the distinction of being the only heritage railway in the country that operates commercial freight traffic on a week-by-week basis. Trainloads of bitumen arrive via the national network and are then forwarded to the nearby Total Plant by the Ribble Steam Railway's own locomotives.

Facilities for cyclists in the authority have improved over the years and there are good connections with the neighbouring authority of South Ribble.

Opened in 2002, the four-mile Ribble Link navigation provides a connection between the once isolated Lancaster canal near its southern terminus in Preston and the rest of the national canal network.

The county council's rural policy and projects team has produced maps and tables that categorise areas in the authority as being either 'urban', 'town and fringe' or 'village, hamlet and isolated dwellings'.

Green belts have been an enduring element of national planning policy. They check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas; prevent neighbouring towns from merging into one another; assist in safeguarding the countryside, preserve the character of historic towns and encourage the recycling of derelict and other urban land. Preston has a very small proportion of land designated as green belt.

The spatial portrait map of Lancashire (Figure 1) provides an indication of the fact that a small area of the north east corner of the authority is in the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Beauty.

The Local Development Framework for the Central Lancashire area provides the spatial planning outline for the area.

Total carbon dioxide emissions in Preston are high in relation to other Lancashire authorities, but the rate per resident is not excessive in comparison to the UK average. Of note was the fact that CO₂ emissions from road transport were particularly high in Preston.

The household reuse, recycling and composting rate of 32.8% (2008/09) was the lowest rate out of the 14 Lancashire local authorities.

The REMADE programme has been set up to tackle the problem of derelict land in Lancashire. A list of the development sites across Lancashire reveals that Preston and South Ribble contains the 13-hectare Preston to Bamber Bridge Disused Railway. There is also Fishwick Recreation Ground Phase 1 and Phase 2/3, and the Preston to Longridge Disused Railway.

6. Health and Wellbeing

Figures for life expectancy at birth by local authority reveal that Preston district has male and female rates that are below the national averages. Mortality rates in the authority for both genders are noticeably higher than the county, regional and national results.

The health and wellbeing area profiles section of the website contains a range of other health data sets for the authority.

The Preston Health Profile, published by the Association of Public Health Authorities, reveals that the health of people in the area is generally worse than the England average. Problems include violent crime, diabetes and deaths from smoking.

Preston is one of the authorities in the NHS Central Lancashire area and the organisation's annual report provides details of standards and performance. A major local facility is the Royal Preston Hospital whilst the Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust website lists a number of other locations in the authority.

The Trauma and Injury Intelligence Group (TIIG) was established to develop an injury surveillance system covering the North West. The Lancashire results include report for Royal Preston Hospital. The publications section also includes injuries across Lancashire reports to accident and emergency departments that incorporate results by place of residence for each local authority in the broader Lancashire area. These reports are supplemented by quarterly updates for all 14 Lancashire local authorities.

7. Older People

There are a large number of pension claimants in the district, but as mentioned earlier, there is not a high proportion of older people in the district. In comparison in comparison with a number of coastal areas in the county, there are few parts of the authority that are particularly popular with people of retirement age. Pension Credit is for pensioners at the lower end of the income scale and the caseload in the authority is in excess of 6000.

The income deprivation affecting older people results from the 2007 indices of deprivation reveal some problem areas in Preston. Attendance Allowance provides financial help to people aged 65 or over who are physically or mentally disabled. The caseload in Preston is over 4,000.

Life expectancy as mentioned earlier is increasing but there is no guarantee that the extra years of life will necessarily equate to extra years of healthy life expectancy. However, it is not a foregone conclusion that "extra" years of life expectancy should necessarily lead to additional years with ill health or disability. More suitable community services to enable independent living and more effective practice of preventive lifestyles and medicine has the potential to lengthen disability-free life expectancy, particularly in the case of the prevention and treatment of non-fatal but disabling diseases.

The county council has a number of care services establishments that include a few sites in Preston.

The Lancashire Care Homes Association is an organisation that represents care providers across the broader Lancashire area. The website lists a large number of care and nursing homes, along with domiciliary care agencies in the area. The details are listed to by major urban localities across the county.

Appendix 1. Performance Monitoring

Central government has set a number of priority measures for local authorities and partnerships. Thirty five of these national indicators have been identified as particularly important for the Lancashire County Council area as part of the Local Area Agreement (LAA). These 35 are listed under the seven broad themes of the LAA and reports that monitor performance are published on a regular basis.

Local Strategic Partnerships are embedded with the Local Area Agreement structure and the partnership for Preston sets out its vision for the future in the local Sustainable Community Strategy. The partnership monitors performance of the strategy at the local level.

Please also note that the Local Development Framework for the Central Lancashire area is a statutory planning policy process that covers a wide range of issues. It deals with how the area will change over the coming years and the intention will be to monitor progress towards achieving a set a milestones.

Appendix 2. Accompanying Tables and Small Area Statistics

Link to all supporting data tables, small area results and other information sources for Preston district.