Regional Competitiveness
2005
July 2005
Introduction
In April 2005 the DTI published the latest update of its "Regional Competitiveness and State of the Regions" report. The purpose of this report is to present statistical information that illustrates the factors that contribute towards "regional competitiveness" and to help identify underlying characteristics influencing this. The indicators used have been designed to assist in the development of regional economic strategies and to support the work of bodies like the Regional Development Agencies in English regions and the devolved administrations. They are not intended to measure the performance of the Government Offices or devolved administrations themselves.
Regional competitiveness describes the ability of regions to generate income and employment levels within an environment of domestic and international competition. It involves comparing the 12 regions and countries of the UK across a range of 17 indicators. These indicators are intended to give a balanced picture of all the statistical information relevant to regional competitiveness. Some factors may not determine regional competitiveness but measure outcomes reflecting the competitiveness of a region. There is no attempt to provide a single composite measure of competitiveness.
The following provides a brief outline of these indicators for the North West of England, comprising the five separate sub-regions of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. More detailed figures and the region's ranking are provided in Table 1. In those instances where it has been possible to derive comparable data, figures are also shown separately for the Lancashire NUTS-2 sub-region.
Overall Competitiveness
1a. Gross Value Added per Head
Gross Value Added (GVA) per head details the economic activity within a region by measuring the value of new goods and services produced as a function of the resident population. Between 1989 and 2003 nominal GVA per head in the North West rose by 98%, marginally below the UK average but nonetheless it was the 6th fastest growing region (over the same period the Retail Price Index increased by 62%). With GVA per head in 2003 of £14,350, the North West stood at 89.8% of the UK average, ranking in 8th place in the prosperity league, just ahead of Yorkshire & the Humber and in the same relative position that it held in 1989.
The most recent comparable information for Lancashire is for 2002. This estimates the sub-region's GVA per head at £12,700 or just 83% of the UK average and seven percentage points below that of the North West. This represented a significant deterioration from 1995 when Lancashire's GVA per head was at 90% of the UK average and at only one percentage point below the North West. In 2002 Lancashire ranked as a relatively modest 24th out of the 37 NUTS-2 regions used by the Office for National Statistics.
1b. Gross Household Disposable Income per Head
This measure provides an indication of the income that resident households and non-profit organisations that serve households within an area have to spend on goods and services. It includes the receipt of social security and other benefits as well as income earned from employment, investments and occupational and state pensions less payment for tax, National Insurance and contributions to life assurance and pension schemes. The spread of household disposable income per head shows less variation from the national average than GVA per head across all regions because of the equalising tendency of taxation, social security and pension benefits. In 2003 the North West had a gross household disposable income per head figure of £11,560 or 92% of the UK average and ranked 7th out of the 12 UK regions. Between 1995 and 2003 the region enjoyed a nominal increase in GDHI per head of nearly 46%, close to the national average though all regions enjoyed gains in a narrow band of between 43-50%.
In 2003 the Lancashire NUTS-2 region enjoyed gross household disposable income per capita of £11,220 – a level that was three percentage points lower than that of the North West Region and only 89% of the UK average, a level that has been fairly constant over recent years. The sub-region ranked as a lower-middle ranking 28th out of the 37 NUTS-2 areas, a slightly poorer position than in the case of the GVA per head measure.
2a. Labour Productivity - GVA per Workforce Job
This is an indicator of competitiveness within industry sectors measured in terms of gross value added per workforce job. To some extent the measure is influenced by the "structural mix" of industries (i.e. the relative shares of capital/labour intensive sectors), which varies across regions rather than reflecting any simple idea of "efficiency". In 2002, "all-industry" productivity in the North West stood at £28,400 per workforce job or at 89% of the UK average, ranking the area in 8th place out of the twelve UK regions. This position was largely attributable to relatively low GVA per head within the service industries that in the North West stood at 87% of the UK average. As a group, services also have a slightly lower representation within the economy compared with regions like London or the South East. In "other industries" (i.e. agriculture, utilities, extraction and construction), productivity levels were also well below par (at 80% of the UK). Much of the North West's strengths continue to lie in the manufacturing sector and here GVA per head, at £40,600 was nearly 5% above the UK average of £38,800, although still well below levels to be found in London and Scotland. The rather stronger out-turn in manufacturing in the North West reflects in part the local importance of high value sectors like aerospace, automotive, chemicals and the nuclear industry.
Within the Lancashire NUTS-2 area productivity data by workforce jobs is only readily available for the manufacturing sector and is calculated on a slightly different denominator. However, in 2002, labour productivity in Lancashire manufacturing industry was estimated at £41,100, a level 5% above the calculated UK average of £39,100. This favourable position was due entirely to a dominating performance by the large aerospace sector that has high productivity characteristics. Most other local manufacturing sectors had labour productivity levels below their national equivalents. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that local productivity in services lags that of both the UK and the North West by a large margin.
2b. Gross Value Added per Hour Worked
GVA estimates are workplace based whilst the population estimates are based on residents within the regions. In consequence, areas with high net inward commuting flows such as London and other conurbation areas tend to have artificially inflated GVA per head. Expressing GVA relative to the number of jobs filled in the region (a proxy for GVA per worker) or relative to the number of hours worked in a region tends to narrow the difference between areas. In terms of GVA per filled job, with the exception of London, which remained in a class of its own, all regional indices are within 10% of the national average. In 2003 GVA per filled job in the North West at 92.8% of the UK average was three percentage points lower than in 1996 and ranked 9th amongst UK regions just ahead of the North East. Viewed in terms of GVA per hour worked the range between the top and bottom performing regions was even narrower although again the North West had seen some deterioration relative to the nation and at 94.4% of the UK average in 2003 again ranked in 9th place just ahead of Yorkshire and the Humber amongst English regions.
No equivalent data for Lancashire is available on either of these indicators.
3. Investment and Output by UK and Foreign-Owned Companies
This is a measure of the attractiveness of a region to foreign investors and the importance of both domestic and foreign investment to the industrial base of the region. Net Capital Expenditure of firms is used as a proxy for investment. Over the period 1998-2002 an annual average of £16.5bn was invested in GB manufacturing industry and 30% of this was from foreign owned companies. Over the same period, an average of £54.5bn per year was invested in services in Britain of which 12% was from foreign owned companies. In total, approximately £83bn was invested per year across the regions of Great Britain, 18% from foreign companies. In the North West, of the £2.3bn of investment in manufacturing over the same period, £479m or 20.8% was from foreign owned companies. In the case of services, 6.8% of the total £5.6bn was from foreign companies. In absolute terms, foreign manufacturing investment in the North West was the 4th highest of all GB regions but proportionally, the region ranked in just 11th place. In the case of services foreign investment in the region ranked as 10th. GVA is used as a proxy for output. In 2002, 30% of GB output in the manufacturing sector was from foreign-owned companies. Just 24.5% of the North West's manufacturing output was derived from overseas companies; four percentage points lower than the UK average.
Over the period 1998-2001 manufacturing industry in Lancashire invested an annual average sum of £415m, equivalent to about 18% of the regional total, somewhat less that might have been expected from the sub-region's manufacturing contribution as measured by its employment base, but no data are available on the respective proportions of expenditure made by domestic and foreign companies. Total manufacturing output (GVA) in Lancashire in 2002 amounted to £4.8bn, about a quarter of the regional total, but again, no information is available by company ownership. No equivalent data for Lancashire services is readily available.
4. Exports of Goods
This competitiveness indicator provides information both on the total value of UK exports of goods accounted for by each region and exports of goods as a proportion of total employee jobs in each region. However, it should be noted that the value of exports is dependent to a large extent on the size of a region's economy and that production of some goods (e.g. motor vehicles, aircraft) can involve several separate stages of production and that if an item is exported from one region it does not necessarily mean that all the added value was generated in that region. In 2004 goods to the value of £17.7bn were exported from the North West, equivalent to 9.4% of total UK trade in goods. Comparatively, this was equivalent to £5,969 per employee job (UK = £7,246), ranking the region in 7th position. Approximately 53% of the North West's exports of goods by value in 2004 were to the European Union (UK = 58%) with a further 18% to North America (UK = 17%). The share of North West exports to the Middle East and Africa were second only to London. The value of the North West's exports in 2004 was equivalent to 18.2% of the region's headline GVA (UK = 19.4%).
No equivalent data for Lancashire is available on this indicator.
Labour Market
5. Average Earnings
This measure reflects the pay levels of full-time employees in terms of average (median) hourly earnings (including overtime and shift pay). High earnings can be an indicator of a region's competitiveness. However, if they are not supported by high productivity they can have an adverse effect on long-run competitiveness. High earnings may also suggest that skill shortages are leading to wage inflation which in turn could also undermine competitiveness. Also, earnings estimates do not take account of regional variations in the cost of living and thus do not represent the true "buying power" of these earnings. Average hourly wage rates in the North West in 2004 at £9.92 were 94% of the national average (though this average is highly skewed by exceptionally high rates in London) and in ranked terms the North West has the =4th highest rates of UK regions. Hourly wage rates for 2004 in the North West manufacturing sector were £10.45, nearly two percentage points above the UK but in the services sector, North West wage rates were only 92% of the national average. As with productivity figures, average earnings are also affected by the sectoral mix of the regional economy and the North West continues to have above-representation in a number of traditional industries where remuneration is lower than in some of the faster growing high tech and knowledge-based sectors.
This structural position is even more pronounced in Lancashire where hourly wage rates of full-time employee in 2004 were only 92% of the UK average and two percentage points below those of the region.
6. Employment
This is measured in terms of both total employment and the proportion of people of working age in employment. In Autumn 2004 the North West had the third largest workforce after the South East and London with about 11.4% of the UK total. However, the region has a below-average proportion of people of working age in employment, (73.9% compared with a UK average of 74.8%) ranking in 8th position amongst UK regions. Below-average participation rates will normally reflect above-average unemployment, but the region has a slightly lower unemployment rate to the UK. Its lower participation rate may therefore be due to higher numbers of economically inactive people (such as full-time students). Over the past five years participation rates many of the northern and midland regions have been rising, presumably reflecting the sustained economic upturn which has drawn new people as well as those previously unemployed, into the active labour market. The rise in the participation rate in the North West from 71.9 in 1999 to 73.9% in 2004 contrasted with a virtually static position nationally.
The proportion of persons of working age in employment in Lancashire, at 75.8% is above both the regional and national averages having shown a marked improvement over the past few years.
7. Unemployment
This is a key measure of labour market performance and the unemployment rate (as measured by the Labour Force Survey) is sometimes used as a measure of the "tightness" of the regional labour market. During autumn 2004 the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the North West stood at 4.5%, compared with 4.7% for the UK, ranking the region as the 6th best performer.
The LFS measured unemployment rate in the Lancashire sub-region is somewhat susceptible to statistical error but in autumn 2004 stood at 4.2%, below both the regional and national averages. Many parts of the County are in a position of virtually "full employment", though persistently higher rates are still a major problem within parts of some of the larger urban areas.
8. Claimant Count
The claimant count is the number of people claiming unemployment related benefits, such as Job Seeker's Allowance, taken from monthly administrative records. In January 2004 the claimant count rate in the North West stood at 2.8%, only slightly above the UK average of 2.7%, ranking the region in 5th position in a range that extended from a rate of 1.5% in the South East to 3.8% in the North East. The claimant count also gives a measure of "long-term unemployment", a measure of long-term exclusion from participation in the labour market. The proportion of people suffering from long-term unemployment (12 months or more) has fallen considerably over recent years and in December 2004 stood at just 13.0% in the North West (against 21.5% in December 1999), below the UK average of 15.6%.
In Lancashire the claimant unemployment rate in December 2004 at just 2.2% was significantly below both the regional and national averages. Ribble Valley District had the lowest rate in the North West. Long-term unemployment in the sub-region at 10.1% of claimants is also very low. In part this is probably a reflection of high proportions of seasonal employment associated with the tourist trade but is also linked with high levels of temporary and short-term contract working in certain parts of the County, entailing above average flows on and off the benefits register.
9. Educational & Vocational Attainment
These indicators comprise the following:
- Proportion of 16-19 year olds qualified to the equivalent of NVQ Level 2 (e.g. 5 GCSE passes at grade A*-C) or above
- Proportion of 19-21 year olds qualified to NVQ Level 2 or higher
- Proportion of 19-21 year olds qualified to NVQ Level 3 or higher (e.g. equivalent to 2 A levels at A-C)
- Proportion of economically active adults qualified to Levels 2-4 or above
- Proportion of economically active adults with no qualifications
- Proportion of employees receiving job-related training
In autumn 2004 Scotland and the South East achieved the highest percentages of 16-19 year olds educated to Level 2 or higher. That of the North West, despite showing a steady improvement over recent years, at 63.5%, was 1.7 percentage points below the UK average and placed the region in 7th position. The region achieved a better out-turn for 19-21 year-olds for both Levels 2 and 3, maintaining its position above the national average, presumably reflecting to some extent the strength in the region's vocational further education colleges.
Within the wider labour market, the North West recorded a figure of 50.7% of economically active adults qualified to NVQ Level 3 in the autumn of 2004. This represents a considerable improvement on the figure of 44.7% in autumn 1998 but the region is still below the UK average. Some 28.9% of the North West's economically active adults were qualified up to Level 4. Though rising, this too compared unfavourably with the UK figure of 30.8%. About 1 in 10 adults across the UK had no qualifications and this proportion was broadly repeated across the English regions, Scotland and Wales. The lowest figure was in the South East and South West with just 7.5% of adults with no qualifications. However, these estimates should be interpretated with care as they say as much about the economic "pull" of these regions and the mobility of people with certain qualifications as they do about the social and demographic characteristics of other regions. Around 1 in 6 employees in the UJ received job related training in the previous 4 weeks with the position in the North West now matching the UK average, having risen from a lower base.
The Lancashire figures derived from the Labour Force Survey are subject to some statistical volatility but overall suggest that the sub-region's workforce is slightly less well qualified than that of the region or of the UK. Vocational attainment at Level 2 is marginally above that of the UK but below that of the region but at both Level 3 and Level 4 is below both the UK AND north West averages.
Deprivation
10. Income Support Claimants
Measured as a proportion of the population over 16 years (or 16-59 years from November 2003 with the introduction of Pension Credit for 60+ year olds), income support claimants include the elderly, lone parents, disabled and "other" special groups and are an indicator of social deprivation in a region. In August 2004 8.0% of the North West's population aged 16-59 were in receipt of Income Support – a level 1.4 percentage points above the UK average. This rate was exceeded only by the North East (8.1%) and Northern Ireland (10.0%) and was nearly double that of the South East.
Income Support across the Lancashire sub-region is lower than that of the wider North West but remains above the UK average. Not unexpectedly, Income Support levels tend to be highest in the larger urban areas with some urban wards having rates 2-3 times the national average.
11. Income Deprivation
This measure seeks to indicate the distribution of income deprivation within each of the English regions using the percentage of the population dependent on Income Support benefits as a proxy for this. This has been calculated for the region as a whole as well as for the 20% of the population resident in the most deprived wards within the region. In the former the North West ranks next to last behind the North East out of the nine English regions; in the latter it is ranked bottom. For statistical reasons the results should be viewed with some caution but evidence at ward level from the more recent Indices of Multiple Deprivation for both 2000 and 2004 does suggest that the North West, including Lancashire, does have a disproportionate share of its population living in the most deprived areas.
Business Development
12. Business Registration & Survival Rates
This measure reflects entrepreneurial activity in the formation rate of new firms and their ability to survive their first three years of trading. In common with most other regions aside from London the all-industry VAT-registration rate in the North West has been on an upward trend over recent years and in 2003 was above the nation average ranking in second place behind London where registrations have fallen back. The improvement in the North West's position has been most notable in services and "other" industries (e.g. construction, utilities) but business formation rates in manufacturing have fallen. Measured in terms of registrations per 10,000 adults, the North West appears to be less entrepreneurial with a rate of 35 in 2003 being some 12.5% below the national average. Business survival rates in the region have improved over recent years, though they remain the second lowest in the country after London.
The business formation rate in Lancashire in 2003 was nearly a full percentage point below the North West average and also below that of the UK revealing a tendency to "under-performance", which has been apparent for many years. The structural make-up of the local economy has been responsible for a large part of this relatively lack-lustre out-turn in local new business formation rather than any deep-seated lack of entrepreneurship. Despite recent improvements, business survival rates in Lancashire also continue to lag the UK average.
13. Total Entrepreneurship Activity (TEA)
This measure, gathered from international survey material is based on a definition of entrepreneurship as "any attempt at new business or new venture creation, such as self-employment, a new business organisation or the expansion of an existing business by an individual, team of individuals, or established businesses". TEA (as a proportion of the total adult population) in the UK increased from 5.4% in 2002 to 6.4% in 2003 and dropped slightly in 2004 to 6.3%. In the North West in 2004 4.6% of the population were estimated as being engaged in some form of entrepreneurial activity compared with 4.8% two years previously and ranked the region as =8th alongside the North East and well behind the levels of 7%+ recorded in London and the South East.
No equivalent data for Lancashire is available on this indicator.
14. Research & Development & Employment in High Technology Industry
These are measures of the importance of R&D activity carried out by manufacturing and service sector enterprises and employment in high and medium-high technology industry in a region compared with the total employee job base. As a percentage of total gross value added, business R&D in the North West has remained fairly steady over recent years and in 2002 stood at 1.7%. The region ranks a creditable equal fourth on this measure though its share is still only half that enjoyed in the best performing East Region. The great bulk of business R&D in the North West was from within the manufacturing sector and reflected the strong science and technology base underlying many of the region's key industries. Based on a revised OECD definition of "High Technology" and "Medium High Technology", across the UK 4.5% of all employee jobs were classified as "high tech" in 2003, a fall of over 1.5 percentage points from the 1998 figure. With 154,400 high tech jobs the North West has the third largest high tech workforce in the UK. In proportionate terms this represents 5.2% of all employee jobs, ranking the region in 5th place but still well above the national average.
With 7.5% of its total employee jobs in high tech industry (or more than one in six of the sub-region's manufacturing workforce), Lancashire's position is substantially above both the national and regional averages, making it one of the most important centres of high tech industry outside the south of England. This position is largely attributable to its very large aerospace industry presence.
Land & Infrastructure
15. Transport
Intended to show the importance of the transport infrastructure on regional competitiveness, this measure uses two main indicators:
- mode of transport to work
- average speed and vehicle flows on roads
The main mode of transport to work in the North West in the autumn 2003 was by car or van (private transport), accounting for 74.6% of work trips against a UK average of 71.3%, though this average is highly skewed by high public transport travel patterns in London. Average traffic speeds on major roads increased slightly between 1998-2003. In 2003 the average speed on roads in the North West was 81.3kph, slightly slower than the English average 83.1kph. Reflecting this, average daily motor vehicle flows on the North West's roads were also slightly above the national average.
No equivalent data for Lancashire is available on this indicator.
16. Industrial Property & Office Rental Costs
This, a measure of property costs by region, is drawn from a sample of different locations within each region from Inland Revenue valuations. Capital values of Type 3 Industrial/Warehouse Property in the North West in 2005 were only 82% of the UK average, little changed from five years previously. Office rentals showed a similar differential from the national average. In both instances the UK figures continue to be heavily skewed by the relative high costs of properties in London and the South East.
No equivalent data for Lancashire is available on this indicator.
17. Re-Use of Vacant and Derelict Land
In 1998, Yorkshire and the Humber had the highest proportion of previously developed land that was vacant (3.1%) in addition to the highest proportion of developed land that was derelict (3.2%). By 2003, this pattern had changed with the North East having the highest percentage of vacant land and the North West the highest proportion of derelict land (at 3.6% - an increase of 1.5 percentage points on the 1998 figure). In total, in 2003 some 5.6% of previously developed land in the North West remained unused or may be available for redevelopment, the highest proportion in England.
Lancashire has some 5,580 ha of derelict, under-used and neglected land, or about 40% of the North West total. About 2,430ha (or 43%) of the Lancashire total was of previously developed land.
| North West Region | NW Ranking in UK(1) | United Kingdom | Lancashire | ||
| Overall Competitiveness | |||||
| 1a. | Gross Value Added per head (workplace basis), 2003 | 89.8 | 8 | 100.0 | 83.0 |
| 1b. | Gross Household Disposable Income per head, 2003 | 92.0 | 7 | 100.0 | 89.0 |
| 2a. | Labour Productivity (GVA per Workforce Job), 2002 | ||||
| • All industries | £28,400 | 8 | £31,800 | * | |
| • Manufacturing | £40,600 | 4 | £38,800 | £41,100 | |
| • Services | £25,800 | 10 | £29,800 | * | |
| • Other industries | £31,900 | 7 | £39,900 | * | |
| 2b. | Labour Productivity, 2003 | ||||
| • Gross Value Added per Filled Job | 92.8 | 9 | 100.0 | * | |
| • Gross Value Added per Hour Worked | 94.4 | 9 | 100.0 | * | |
| 3a. | Investment by Foreign Companies as % of all investment, 1998-2002 annual average | 10.1 | 11 | 17.8(3) | * |
| • Manufacturing | 20.8 | 11 | 30.0(3) | * | |
| • Services | 6.8 | 11 | 11.5(3) | * | |
| • Other industries | 2.6 | 11 | 29.1(3) | * | |
| • Investment by Foreign Companies as % of GVA, 2002 | 1.1 | 11 | 1.5(3) | * | |
| 3b. | Output (GVA) by foreign companies as % of GVA, 2002 | 14.3 | 9 | 19.1(3) | * |
| • Manufacturing | 24.5 | 9 | 29.6(3) | * | |
| • Services | 11.3 | 8 | 15.3(3) | * | |
| • Other industries | 4.1 | 10 | 21.4(3) | * | |
| 4. | Exports of goods per employee job, 2004 | £5,969 | 7 | £7,246 | * |
| • Value of exports as % of regional GVA, 2004 | 18.2 | 7 | 19.4 | * | |
| Labour Market | |||||
| 5. | Gross average (median) hourly earnings for full-time employees, including overtime, April 2004 | ||||
| • Males | £10.63 | 4 | £11.18 | £10.41 | |
| • Females | £8.81 | 5 | £9.49 | £8.25 | |
| • All Employees | £9.92 | 4 | £10.51 | £9.64 | |
| • Total manufacturing | £10.45 | 4 | £10.27 | * | |
| • Total services | £9.71 | 5 | £10.61 | * | |
| 6. | Employment: % of persons of working age in employment - residence based, Autumn 2004 | 73.9 | 8 | 74.8 | 75.8 |
| • LFS unemployment rate (%), All 16+, Autumn 2004 | 4.5 | 6 | 4.7 | 4.2 | |
| • Claimant count rate (%), December 2004 | 2.8 | =5 | 2.7 | 2.2 | |
| • % claimants out of work for over a year, December 2004 | 13.8 | 5 | 15.6 | 10.1 | |
| 9. | Education & Vocational Attainment, Autumn 2004 | ||||
| • % 16-19 year olds educated to Level 2 or higher | 63.5 | 7 | 65.2 | * | |
| • %19-21 year olds educated to Level 2 or higher | 77.5 | 5 | 75.2 | * | |
| • % 19-21 year olds educated to Level 3 or higher | 52.3 | 5 | 51.7 | * | |
| • % of workforce qualified to NVQ Level 2 | 73.0 | 3 | 72.1 | * | |
| • % of workforce qualified to NVQ Level 3 | 50.7 | 5 | 51.4 | 49.3 | |
| • % of workforce qualified to NVQ Level 4 | 28.9 | 7 | 30.8 | 28.3 | |
| • % of workforce with no qualifications | 10.3 | 8 | 9.9 | * | |
| • % 0f employees receiving job-related training | 16.0 | 9 | 16.1 | * | |
| Deprivation | |||||
| 10. | Income support claimants as % of population 16-59, August 2004 | 8.0 | 10 | 6.6 | 6.9 |
| • Minimum Income Guarantee Income Support claimants as % of 60+ population, August 2003 | 17.4 | 8 | 15.3 | * | |
| • Disabled Income Support claimants as % 16-59 yr olds, August 2004 | 4.5 | 11 | 3.3 | * | |
| • Pension Credit claimants as % of the 60+ population, August 2004 | 24.1 | 9 | 21.6 | * | |
| • Lone Parent Income Support claimants as 5 of 16-59 yr olds, August 2004 | 2.7 | 10 | 2.3 | * | |
| • Other Income Support claimants as % of 16-59 yr olds, August 2004 | 0.8 | 8 | 0.7 | * | |
| 11. | People with families dependent on Income Support | ||||
| • % of dependents - whole region | 30.0 | 8 | 24.0(2) | * | |
| • % of dependents - most deprived 20% of population | 54.0 | 9 | 45.4 | * | |
| Business Development | |||||
| 12a. | Business registrations & survival rates | ||||
| • VAT registrations as % of stock of businesses, 2003 | 11.1 | 2 | 10.6 | 10.4 | |
| • Manufacturing industries | 6.8 | 6 | 6.8 | * | |
| • Service industries | 12.3 | 2 | 11.8 | * | |
| • Other industries | 8.2 | 5 | 7.6 | * | |
| 12b. | VAT registrations per 10,000 adult population, 2003 | 35 | 7 | 40 | 34 |
| 12c. | Business survival rate: % surviving 3 years+ | 64.9 | 11 | 66.5 | * |
| 13. | Total Entrepreneurial Activity - as % of adult population, 2004 | 4.6 | =8 | 6.3 | * |
| 14. | R&D Intensity & High & Medium-High Tech Industry | ||||
| • Business enterprise R&D as % of GVA, 2002 | |||||
| • Total (all industries) | 1.7 | =4 | 1.4 | * | |
| • Manufacturing | 8.0 | 4 | 6.9 | * | |
| • Services | 0.2 | =6 | 0.4 | * | |
| • Other industries | 0.0 | — | 0.3 | * | |
| • % of total employee jobs in high & medium technology sectors, 2003 | 5.2 | 5 | 4.5 | 7.5 | |
| • Gross domestic expenditure on R&D as % of total GVA, 2002 | 2.2 | 5 | 2.0 | * | |
| • % of turnover attributable to new/improved products | 6 | =7 | 9 | * | |
| Land & Infrastructure | |||||
| 15a. | Average traffic speed (kph), 2003 | 81.3 | 7 | 83.1(3) | * |
| 15b. | Average daily motor vehicle flow (thous/day), 2003 | 4.1 | 9 | 3.4(3) | * |
| 16. | Industrial property & office rental costs, 2005 | ||||
| • Capital value index of industrial property | 82 | 8 | 100.0 | * | |
| • Rental cost index of office accommodation | 85 | =9 | 100.0 | * | |
| 17. | Re-use of vacant & Derelict Land, 2003 | ||||
| • % of previously developed vacant land | 2.1 | 7 | 1.7(2) | * | |
| • % of land & buildings that are derelict | 3.6 | 9 | 1.8(2) | * | |
| • % of all land that is unused or may be available for redevelopment | 5.6 | 9 | 3.4(2) | * | |
| Notes (1) North West ranking out of 9 English regions plus Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland | |||||
| (2) England/English regions only | |||||
| (3) Great Britain | |||||
| Source Department of Trade & Industry - Regional Competitiveness Indicators, May 2005 | |||||
For further details, please contact:
Peter Kivell
Tel 01772 534157
Email Peter.Kivell@lancashire.gov.uk