Journey to Work
2001

May 2004

Introduction

The daily journey-to-work movements of the great majority of the working population is a phenomenon of our age and is of considerable importance to the design and management of the transport system and to the location of development. It has major implications for the study and the planning of peak urban and inter-urban transport requirements and the locations of major land uses that generate the need for movement. Further, it is an important element in the consideration of the level and quality of employment opportunities available and in questions of industrial location policy. At the level of the individual, the daily commute journey can involve considerable psychological strain as well as the expenditure of time and money.

An ever-greater separation of home and workplace, promoted by economic and social factors and facilitated by increased levels of car ownership, has led, over the past half century to both a large increase in the number and length of work trips and to an increasingly complicated spatial pattern of work movements to move diverse locations. The major trips are centripetal - that is, flows towards the centres of towns from suburbs and outlying areas, but the detailed pattern in Lancashire is complicated both by the fact that many work centres lie within a short distance of one another and by the development of out of town and out of centre major employment areas. The result of such factors has been to create local work trip patterns of multifarious cross-flows and counter-flows of various volumes. Both the significance of external workflows to and from Lancashire and the wholly internal trips within the sub-region have increased substantially over recent decades.

For many people the daily commute is voluntary in order to take advantage of a better job or desirable home environment. For others it can be an expensive and lengthy necessity brought about by industrial restructuring and changing workplace patterns. For those willing and able to undertake such work journeys, the choices of work opportunities are greatly enhanced; for employers there is an ability to recruit from an enlarged potential workforce with a greater work-skills base.

Journey to Work in Lancashire

The nature and scale of journey to work movements in Lancashire can be gauged from the 2001 Census of Population Workplace and Transport to Work Statistics. Comparisons with previous Census reports enable trends over time to be established and identified. Table 1 shows the journey to work patterns for the Lancashire NUTS-2 area and its constituent areas.

Table 1 Journey to Work, Lancashire, 2001
	Employed Residents	Resident & Working in Area	% Living & Working in Area	Residents Elsewhere & Working in Area (Commuters to Area)	Working Elsewhere & Resident in Area (Commuters from Area)	Net Movements	Total Working in Area

NORTH LANCASHIRE	192,240	—	—	—	—	-4,920	187,320
Blackpool	59,070	41,710	70.6	17,610	17,360	250	59,320
Fylde	32,220	20,410	63.3	20,160	11,810	8,350	40,570
Lancaster	55,910	46,230	82.7	6,780	9,680	-2,900	53,010
Wyre	45,040	24,650	54.7	9,770	20,390	-10,620	34,420

CENTRAL LANCASHIRE	205,570	—	—	—	—	-4,970	200,600
Chorley	49,200	24,140	49.1	12,440	25,060	-12,620	36,580
Preston	56,200	38,470	68.5	40,070	17,730	22,340	78,540
South Ribble	51,330	22,910	44.6	18,780	28,420	-9,640	41,690
West Lancashire	48,840	27,990	57.3	15,790	20,850	-5,060	43,780

LANCASHIRE WEST	397,810	—	—	—	—	-9,890	387,920

EAST LANCASHIRE	219,780	—	—	—	—	-11,490	208,290
Blackburn with Darwen	53,580	37,940	70.8	21,010	15,640	5,370	58,950
Burnley	38,100	25,140	66.0	13,110	12,960	150	38,250
Hyndburn	34,770	19,350	55.7	12,110	15,420	-3,310	31,460
Pendle	37,040	23,690	64.0	8,920	13,350	-4,430	32,610
Ribble Valley	26,410	14,090	53.4	10,000	12,320	-2,320	24,090
Rossendale	29,880	15,860	53.1	7,060	14,020	-6,960	22,920

LANCASHIRE COUNTY	504,930	406,570	80.5	71,360	98,360	-27,000	477,930

LANCASHIRE NUTS-2	617,590	—	—	—	—	-21,370	596,220
Source ONS 2001 Census of Population, Workplace & Transport to Work Statistics.

'Lives and works in area' includes people who work at or mainly from home and those with no fixed place of work.

Counts do not include people whose usual residence was outside England and Wales.

In 2001 Lancashire had more employed residents (617,600) than jobs within its boundaries (596,200). The balance is accounted for by net outward commuting (primarily to Greater Manchester and Merseyside work centres) amounting to 21,400.

The majority of Lancashire's employed residents continue to both live and work in the same district. In Lancaster this share rises to nearly 83% suggesting a fairly self-contained local labour market, but the proportion falls to just 45% in South Ribble where many residents have a high dependency on Preston for employment opportunities. Generally speaking the larger urban areas of Preston (with 69% both living and working in the district), Blackburn (71%), Blackpool (71%) and, to a lesser extent, Burnley (66%) tend to be more "self-contained" in terms of employed residents' working trips than districts elsewhere in the sub-region.

Net Movements

Districts may be classed into "job surplus" or "job deficit" areas referring to the balance in a district between its numbers of employed residents and its numbers of workplaces. This is a simple arithmetic division that fails to account for any differences in either the quality or the skills of the positions available or of the workforce and therefore should not be taken as a (direct) measure of self-sufficiency (Table 2).

Table 2 Journey to Work Net Movements, Lancashire, 1951-2001
	1951	1961	1971	1981	1991	2001

NORTH LANCASHIRE	-4,190	-5,930	-7,790	-5,200	-2,750	-4,920
Blackpool	-6,240	-6,730	-4,040	-4,060	1,020	250
Fylde	2,410	4,500	2,380	6,800	8,920	8,350
Lancaster	70	-220	220	-560	-2,100	-2,900
Wyre	-430	-3,580	-6,350	-7,380	-10,590	-10,620

CENTRAL LANCASHIRE	3,590	1,010	-940	-2,610	-4,330	-4,970
Chorley	170	-2,030	-7,090	-10,780	-12,740	-12,620
Preston	3,830	9,950	18,090	24,340	22,900	22,340
South Ribble	3,030	700	-4,200	-8,410	-8,880	-9,630
West Lancashire	-3,440	-7,610	-7,740	-7,760	-5,610	-5,060

LANCASHIRE WEST	-600	-4,920	-8,730	-7,810	-7,080	-9,890

EAST LANCASHIRE	2,240	-3,320	-4,480	-8,360	-10,370	-11,490
Blackburn with Darwen	1,100	2,190	5,180	5,770	5,280	5,380
Burnley	-660	1,450	3,200	3,890	1,700	150
Hyndburn	-1,270	-3,360	-3,790	-6,150	-5,640	-3,310
Pendle	660	-240	-2,520	-2,870	-3,290	-4,430
Ribble Valley	-580	-1,620	-3,350	-3,730	-3,550	-2,310
Rossendale	-1,490	-1,740	-3,200	-5,270	-4,870	-6,970

LANCASHIRE	-2,840	-8,240	-13,210	-16,170	-17,450	-21,370
Source ONS - Censuses of Population, Workplace & Transport to Work Statistics

In 2001 the same five districts as in 1991 had job surpluses, that is to say, they attracted more workers than they lost to other districts. These were Preston, Lancashire's largest single work centre with a net gain of 22,300 workers (2% less than in 1991) which it attracted from all parts of the sub-region and beyond; Fylde (+8,300 - a decrease of 6.4% since 1991), which benefited from the presence of a number of very large major employers such as BAE Systems, British Nuclear Fuels and the insurance company Axa; the two manufacturing centres of Blackburn (+5,400) and Burnley (+200), although Burnley's net inward flow has decreased by 91% since 1991; and Blackpool (+250), but again with a large reduction since 1991. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Chorley (with a net daily outflow of -12,600 commuters), Wyre (-10,600) and South Ribble (-9,600) experienced the largest district journey to work outflows, though in the first two cases the long-term pattern of ever greater net losses appear to have been contained over the past decade. Elsewhere, Rossendale's work loss of 7,000 represented an increase of 43% over the 1991-2001 decade, presumably reflecting its strengthening economic ties with work centres in Greater Manchester. The improved position of Ribble Valley (-2,300 net outward commuters in 2001 compared to -3,600 in 1991) is likely in part to represent the above-average rates of employment growth and new local business formation over the decade.

There has been a tendency for those districts that were net exporters in 1951 to continue exporting workers, with the exceptions of Burnley and Blackpool (who became net importers in 1961 and 1991 respectively); small inflows in 1951 in the districts of Lancaster, Chorley and Pendle have become net outflows over the period, significantly so for the Central Lancashire District of Chorley. Preston, Fylde and Blackburn districts have increased in importance as net attractors of workers over the period 1951-2001. South Ribble, with a net inward flow of workers in 1951 on a par with Preston, by 2001 had the third largest net outflow of any district.

Gross Movements

In 2001 Lancashire County had a net outward commuting of 27,000, as reflected on Table 1, though this disguises much larger gross flows to and from the area (Table 3). In the case of Preston, for example, in excess of 40,000 people commute to the district each day whilst 36,000 Preston residents commute outwards to other work centres. At the other extreme, the lowest gross flows are found in Lancaster.

Table 3 Journey to Work Gross Flows, Lancashire, 1991-2001
	Commuters to Area		Commuters from Area
	1991	2001	1991	2001

Blackburn with Darwen	16,880	21,010	11,600	15,640
Blackpool	16,230	17,610	15,210	17,360
Burnley	10,880	13,110	9,180	12,960
Chorley	8,880	12,440	21,620	25,060
Fylde	18,400	20,160	9,480	11,810
Hyndburn	7,170	12,110	12,810	15,420
Lancaster	4,190	6,780	6,290	9,680
Pendle	6,540	8,920	9,830	13,350
Preston	35,760	40,070	12,860	17,730
Ribble Valley	6,710	10,000	10,260	12,320
Rossendale	6,010	7,060	10,880	14,020
South Ribble	16,230	18,780	25,110	28,420
West Lancashire	12,830	15,790	18,440	20,850
Wyre	6,650	9,770	17,240	20,390
Source ONS - 2001 Census of Population

Viewed over the decade 1991-2001 virtually all districts have seen increases in gross flows. The largest increases in inward flows have been in Hyndburn (+69%) and Lancaster (+62%). Lancaster remains a fairly self-contained local labour market though over the last decade also registered a 54% increase in the number of commuters from the area.

Blackpool (+9%) and Fylde (+10%) together with Preston (+12%) are the districts that registered smaller changes in relation to commuters to the area, between 1991 and 2001.

In terms of outward flows, aside from Lancaster, the largest increases were experienced by Preston (+38%), Pendle (+36%) and Burnley (+35%) with West Lancashire, South Ribble and Blackpool recording much lower rates of increase.

Table 4 reveals the journey to work trends for the Lancashire during the 50-year period 1951-2001. There have been significant increases in commuters to and from the sub-region. The dependence upon external work centres has been a characteristic of increasing importance throughout the post-war period, with nearly eight times the net (outward) movement of workers from the County by 2001 compared with 1951.

Table 4 Journey to work trends, Lancashire, 1951-2001
	Employed Residents	Resident & Working in Lancashire	Resident Elsewhere & Working in Lancashire (Commuters to Area)	Working Elsewhere & Resident in Lancashire (Commuters from Area)	Net Movements	Total Working in Lancashire

1951	608,000	587,700	17,500	20,300	-2,800	605,200
1961	592,400	562,600	21,600	29,800	-8,200	584,200
1971	582,80	541,600	28,000	41,200	-13,200	569,600
1981	565,70	522,100	27,40	43,600	-16,200	549,500
1991	586,600	531,600	37,550	55,000	-17,450	569,150
2001	617,570	—	—	—	-21,370	596,200
Source ONS - Censuses of Population, Workplace & Transport to Work Statistics