The State of Lancashire Report
Introduction

Strong in historic associations and synonymous with industry and commerce, the present day Lancashire region is only part of what history knows as "Lancashire" – the great duchy covering most of North West England that gave the world the Industrial Revolution. Much of the traditional imagery of the Red Rose County is embodied in towns that are now part of the two great conurbations of Greater Manchester and Merseyside. That which remains, however, still contains towns and cities that are the product of this earlier industrial era.

Today's Lancashire region, which includes Lancashire County and the two unitary authorities of Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool, covers 3,075 sq.km and has a population of nearly 1.5 million people. A further 8 million people live within 50km of the county in one of Europe's most densely populated areas. It is a large and in many respects a unique geographical area, retaining a strong economic base under-pinned by long urban and industrial traditions. But paradoxically, Lancashire is also a multi-faceted region and is widely renowned for its environmental and quality of life attractions, notably its diverse and beautiful landscapes and countryside and its coastal fringes offering many opportunities for recreation and leisure.

With a £21bn per annum economy and home to more than 41,000 businesses with an employee workforce of over 610,000, Lancashire is one of the largest sub-regions in Britain in respect of its contribution to national output. Within the North West alone, Lancashire provides for about a fifth of the region's total economic production of goods and services, its contribution being second only to that of Greater Manchester.

The Lancashire region was at the forefront of the "Industrial Revolution" and its accompanying urbanisation and mass production. It is where many of Britain's more traditional industries – most notably textiles, clothing and footwear, but also engineering, vehicles and chemicals among them, as well as deep coal mining, had their earliest start. Cotton production in particular became synonymous with the County and at its zenith dominated the local economy employing more than a quarter of a million people within present day boundaries alone. In many manufacturing communities across the old cotton belt "King Cotton" accounted for three quarters or more of all locally insured employment and indirectly supported much of the remainder – a degree of economic dependency scarcely imaginable today.

To this day the legacy of canals, older industrial and commercial premises and industrial structure still bears witness in parts of the county to the area's contribution to the development of manufacturing industry in Britain. Many towns too still retain the physical stamp of this earlier manufacturing era.

As It Was

But constant change and adaptation has been a feature of Lancashire's industry: the massive expansion of the textile and allied industries to become a global force over the late 18th and 19th centuries and then their protracted contraction over the 20th Century; the growth of aerospace and defence, engineering, electronics, vehicles, rubber, plastics and paper industries in the 1940s, 50s and 60s; the development and more recent retrenchment of a large slice of the region's defence and automotive sectors; and today, the massive structural shift into public services like education, health and welfare, and into private business, financial, scientific and technical services and the tourism, retail and leisure markets.

Today, as in many other aspects of its character, Lancashire has a highly diverse economic base with a strong mix of both international and indigenous companies from the likes of BAE Systems, British Energy, Leyland Trucks, Springfield Fuels and Rolls Royce to Matalan, Gold Medal Travel, Homeservices Claims Management and Computer Services Corporation. Compared with the backcloth of very large vertically integrated companies, often employing thousands of workers, that characterised the area 25-30 years ago, today 90% of local businesses are small, employing fewer than ten people and 54% of these are less than ten years old. A high number of these companies operate successfully in niche and often global markets. Manufacturing in Lancashire remains a key and highly valued wealth creating sector. Directly it still accounts for nearly a fifth of the workforce and a quarter of local output; through increased outsourcing and purchases each production job probably carries at least another one on its back in one way or another. The old sectors have largely given way to a much more productive, knowledge-intensive and higher technology industrial base. However, despite the continuing key role of production industry, including an active construction sector, as elsewhere in the UK it is services, particularly the commercial, business and technical services along with public-sector employment in areas like education, health and welfare that is today fuelling much of the new jobs growth. Across the sub-region more people are in work than ever before and conditions of virtually full employment are enjoyed in many areas.

Lancashire is today a very different place from what it was only a generation or two ago and is far removed from its traditional and somewhat gritty image. It is a record of achievement that testifies to Lancashire's resilience and positive response to change. All this is not to deny that the region continues to face a challenging future. There remain numerous local issues relating to the economic welfare of many of its residents still to be fully addressed together with associated concerns relating to social, health and environmental well-being in some parts of the region such as those detailed further below, as well as with those arising from the rapid aging of the population and the quality of much of the local infrastructure. Many of these are of a scale and nature more akin to those to be found in some of Britain's larger cities rather than those of a more traditional "shire" area. There are, too, global challenges in which Lancashire will be required to play its part. These will include not only the competitiveness of the region's industry and commerce but also the amelioration of the unprecedented movements of population and in adapting to and managing the key issue of climate change. The current mood, particularly in the business community, is one of optimism and there is a widespread assumption that Lancashire will indeed most likely continue to become ever more prosperous and better able to accommodate the myriad of changes it faces. But the area's economic difficulties have not yet been wholly resolved and its economy, while more diverse and robust, still has significant structural weaknesses. A step change will be necessary if Lancashire is to achieve a relative improvement in its long-term growth rate and enhance its position in the nation's economic ranking.

As It Is

Structure of the State of Lancashire Report

The report primarily looks at Lancashire strengths and, weaknesses, and then considers opportunities and threats that are applicable to Lancashire but which may derive from factors that are external to the area. This is a useful framework for understanding and seeking to assess the nature of possible future changes that may, in this case, affect the economic, environmental and social well being of Lancashire.

The 13 Ambition Lancashire Community Strategy Themes form the primary means of classifying the information in the State of Lancashire Report, but the material is also classified to best fit the seven Lancashire Local Area Agreement Themes.

Please note that the Ambition Lancashire Community Strategy and the Lancashire Local Area Agreement both only cover the 12-district Lancashire County Council area. This State of Lancashire Report however also incorporates results for the two unitary authorities of Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool. Different organisations and partnerships have a variety of requirements and it is not practical to maintain two State of Lancashire Reports that both include and exclude the two unitary authorities. The Lancashire Economic Partnership which manages the Make It Lancashire website is a very important partner organisation that has the alternative requirement for information covering the broader 14 local authority Lancashire area. Wherever possible, the embedded links in the report incorporate work that presents information and analysis to cover both the Lancashire County Council and the broader Lancashire area.

The Future Direction of the State of Lancashire Report

In future, the State of Lancashire Report will endeavour to improve the links between the three distinct strands of Analysis, Policy Choices and Performance Indicators in order to better present a comprehensive area assessment. This objective is inline with future future government policy that, from April 2009, will seek to attain independent assessments of the prospects for local areas and the quality of life with a particular emphasis on vulnerable people.

The second strand of 'Policy choices' is covered by the various strategic documents that take the results of local analysis and spell out what is to be done to improve the situation. The Ambition Lancashire Community Strategy is one of the most important overriding strategic documents.

The third strand 'Performance Indicators' involves monitoring changes over time to provide the evidence of whether the policy choices that have been made are having the desired effect. Central Government has recently set a revised list of 198 priority measures for local government. This streamlined set of indicators reflects national priority outcomes for local authorities working alone or in partnership. In addition to this list of national indicators, there is also a range other local performance indicators that monitor progress towards achieving the Lancashire Community Strategy.

Once the results for the 198 national indicators for all local authorities are fully accessible via a central government website, it will be possible to better integrate the analysis contained in this State of Lancashire report, and on the Lancashire Profile website in general, with the national indicators. A small selection of research articles on this website already highlight the connections between their content and the relevant national indicator.

The link between the analysis leading to a set of policy options that are then monitored by a list of performance indicators is in practice not often as logical as the theory would suggest. The setting of a large number of national indicators by central government is liable not to adequately reflect specific areas of concern within Lancashire that are highlighted by the local analysis. This is where the other local indicators will come in to play.

Next Section: Strengths