Stark regional divide in high-tech jobs leaves some places in Britain hundreds of years behind national average - Nandy

Stark regional divide in high-tech jobs leaves some places in Britain hundreds of years behind national average, shows new analysis – as Government’s levelling up plan fails to create long term plan for growth, says Labour.

Lisa Nandy, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up Housing and Communities, slated the Government for “lacking ambition for our places and our people”.

New analysis from Labour reveals stark regional divides in high-tech “jobs of the future” with London having twice as many high-tech jobs compared the North and Midlands – as Nandy pledges to “build good jobs in every community and win the global race to create the green jobs of the future in Britain”.

Data shows some areas in the South have more high-tech jobs than anywhere else in Europe, whilst parts of the UK lag countries such as Montenegro and Romania. Areas around Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire have nearly one in eight jobs in high-tech sectors, whilst some areas of central London have nearly one in ten. This compares to less than one in fifty in Lincolnshire and around one in forty in South Yorkshire and Tees Valley.

8% of jobs in London are in high-tech sectors, compared to 3.7% across the whole of the North and Midlands. Only two areas of the North and Midlands have an above average amount of jobs in high-tech sectors.

Labour’s new analysis shows that despite big promises, the Government are nowhere near on-target to address this regional divide. On the current trajectory, it will take places like the Tees Valley 120 years to hit the UK average for high-tech jobs. Analysis for a series of places across the country shows:

• Since 2010, Lincolnshire has seen a fall in people working in high-technology jobs from 1.9% to 1.8%. With the current UK average at 5.1%, it would take almost 300 years of growth at the same rate for the county to reach the national average.
• Kent saw the proportion of its jobs that are high-technology increase only by 0.1% in the first 9 years of Tory Government, increasing from 3.4% to 3.5%. At that rate it would be the year 2166 by the time it reached the current national average.

Nandy says the Government’s plan to level up the country is nothing more than “tinkering with Whitehall structures and recycling old announcements”. She said the new data shows that “with the right investment, jobs and opportunities begin to thrive, but for too long the places that used to power our country have only got the crumbs from the table, causing huge inequalities”.  

Labour has pledged to create high-tech, green jobs across the UK, with £28 billion invested each year in green projects across the country to tackle climate change and create more jobs and apprenticeships in industrial and coastal towns. Labour will also freeze and then replace business rates and deliver ambitious plans to make, buy and sell more in Britain, and deliver 100,000 new start-up businesses to grow our economies and sustain our high streets.

Nandy says for levelling up to “truly deliver on this promise, the Government must meet the ambitions people have for our own communities”. Specifically, this means:

1. Good jobs in our home towns, so young people have choices and chances and don’t have to get out to get on.

2. Our high streets are thriving because the local economy is thriving, with good local businesses and money in people’s pockets - not just papering over the cracks.

3. Our towns and villages are better connected to jobs, opportunities, our family and our friends through good transport, digital infrastructure and affordable housing that we have too often missed out on.

4. We get the power to take local decisions for ourselves – ending the system where we have to go cap in hand to Westminster to do things we know will work for us.

5. Our town centres are safe and welcoming instead of plagued by anti-social behaviour, with criminals being let off and victims let down.

Nandy also highlights the decade of low growth under the Conservatives, accusing them of being “the party of low growth and high taxes” and holding Britain back. Between 1997 and 2010, when Labour were in government, the UK economy grew at 2.3 per cent a year. Over the decade leading up to the pandemic it grew by an average of 1.8 per cent a year. The Bank of England expects growth to fall to as low as 1 per cent by the end of this Parliament, while other countries in the OECD are expected to grow at almost twice that rate.

This comes as a damning report from the National Audit Office (NAO) revealed the Government’s bidding process by which Local Authorities compete for small pots of money for regeneration projects does “not usually drive significant growth”. 

Lisa Nandy MP, Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said:

“Rehashed pots of money to scrap over will not level up our country. Good opportunities must be spread throughout the country, so young people have choices and chances and don’t find themselves having to get out to get on. With the right investment and community-led regeneration, jobs and opportunities will begin to thrive.

“People need money back in their pockets. We need good jobs and wages. But the Government have given themselves until 2030 to get on with this. After twelve years of promises, we are left with a list of twelve things the Government has failed to achieve – twelve admissions of failure.

“There are parts of the country where high-tech jobs are being realised through investment in renewables, which cuts energy bills, it gets money back into people’s pockets, it creates apprenticeships.

“But under the Conservatives the proud industrial and coastal communities which were, in living memory, the places which powered the country, have been utterly neglected, causing good jobs to flood out and not return.

“Labour in government would invest £28 billion each year in green projects across the country, creating more jobs and apprenticeships in industrial and coastal towns. A Labour Government would build good jobs in every community and win the global race to create the green jobs of the future in Britain."

 Ends

Notes to editors

• Eurostat compiles data on percentage of employment in high-technology sectors, including high-tech manufacturing and knowledge intensive services. Comparisons looks at all NUTS2 and NUTS 1 areas in the UK, as well as all countries in Europe.
• https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/HTEC_EMP_REG2__custom_1983757/default/table?lang=en
• Between 2010 and 2019, Lincolnshire has seen a 0.1% fall in the percentage of those in high-technology jobs, falling from 1.9% to 1.8%. With the current UK average at 5.1%, it would take almost 300 years of growth in the opposite direction at the same rate for the county to reach the national average, and to do so by 2030 would require movement in the opposite direction at 27 times the rate seen across those 9 years, even with the generous and unlikely assumption that the UK average would stay the same.
• The South West region of England has seen no growth in the percentage of those in high-technology jobs between 2010 and 2019, with 4.1% in both years. To reach the national average by 2030, generously assuming it stays level at 5.1%, the region would need an average 2.5% yearly shift in the proportion of its jobs that are high-technology.”
• Kent saw the proportion of its jobs that are high-technology increase only by 0.1% in the first 9 years of Tory Government, increasing from 3.4% to 3.5%. At that rate it would be the year 2166 by the time it reached the current national average of 5.1%. Indeed, to reach that level by 2030 would require the figure to increase at 13 times the rate than it did between 2010 and 2019.”
• Despite having a higher-than-average proportion of jobs in high-tech back in 2010, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bristol has seen a 0.9% drop taking it from 5.7% to 4.8% and below the national average of 5.1%.”