Category Archives: Skills and Employment

TGLP welcomes CBI call for growth in skills and employability

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The Thames Gateway London Partnership welcomes the publication of CBI’s briefing paper ‘Mapping the route to growth rebalancing employment.’

The paper which examines  the UK’s track record of labour market achievement and highlights the challenges for the future, supports a number of TGLP’s key objectives in particular the need for investment and growth in the employment and skills sector. TGLP welcomes the CBI’s call for change in order to avoid  ‘a polarisation of skills levels’ with more higher skills required in London. TGLP believes that it is essential  to invest in the long term and exploit the opportunities and talents available in the labour market.

TGLP Chief Executive Ros Dunn stated ‘TGLP welcomes the publication of CBI’s briefing paper which reinforces our concerns that the level of employment has unduly suffered during the economic downturn  and has affected the greater South East as much as the rest of the country. TGLP calls for greater investment in the skills sector and for the government to recognise that  the skills sector is one of the key drivers of employment growth.’

Notes to Editor:

  • TGLP is a cross river cross party organisation representing the 10 local authorities and 8 universities in the Thames Gateway area.
  • CBI’s ‘Mapping the route to growth rebalancing employment’ can be found here

London must not be left behind

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The Thames Gateway London Partnership, a cross party cross river organisation representing the 10 local authorities and 8 universities in the Thames Gateway area, yesterday (08.06.011) gave evidence to the Communities and Local Government Select Committee enquiry into regeneration alongside the London Borough of Newham.

The enquiry held in response to the Government publication ‘Regeneration to enable growth: What growth is doing to support community led regeneration’ heard from TGLP’s Chief Executive Ros Dunn,  who argued that London should not be penalised by Government policies, pointing to the region’s exclusion from the National Insurance Holiday, noting that:

‘Rebalancing the economy must mean levelling up, not down. London is the engine of the UK economy and must not be held back or allowed to fall back.’

Dunn also called for strong national leadership and recognition from government that targeted investment and community led regeneration need to be properly linked up.

TGLP’s Chief Executive Ros Dunn stated ‘The Communities and Local Government select committee hearing, provided TGLP the platform to present London’s case to central government. We hope the committee listens to our points and recommends them to central government.’

TGLP deliver a presentation at London Employment and Skills Convention

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Thames Gateway London Partnership’s Chief Executive Ros Dunn delivered a presentation, in conjunction with Peabody Housing Association, entitled ‘How will changes in Housing Benefit affect out of work Londoners?’ at London’s Employment and Skills Convention on Monday (23 May 2011.)

The presentation focussed on the adverse affects of housing benefits on existing claimants which will force many  to seek cheaper accomodation in outer London, where there is traditionally a lack of availability of jobs and increased cost of employment costs due to transport prices. TGLP argues that such obstacles put in place by changes to the housing benefit will ultimately act as a deterrent to work.

To see the presentation in full please click TGLP London Employment and Skills

TECH City

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The story so far

Following Prime Minister David Cameron’s announcement on 4th November 2010 of the development of ‘Tech City,’ East London is set to be transformed into the British equivalent of Silicon Valley. The development of ‘Tech City’ is part of a Government programme to create new jobs, diversify the economy and support sustainable economic growth.

On announcing the programme the Prime Minister noted:

“Right now, Silicon Valley is the leading place in the world for high-tech growth and innovation. But there’s no reason why it has to be so predominant. Our ambition is to bring together the creativity and energy of Shoreditch and the incredible possibilities of the Olympic Park to help make East London one of the world’s great technology centres. I want to show you how we can get there.”

The Prime Minister’s announcement is indicative of the government’s commitment in developing the digital sector in East London, allocating £200million of equity finance for businesses with high growth potential and investing £200million in developing Technology and Innovation Centres. The governments review of UK Intellectual Property laws and introduction of Entrepreneur Visas drive to attract investment in ‘Tech City.’  Government plans already appear to be a success with Cisco pledging to invest over £310m in the project and  major online players  such as Google, Facebook and Intel already signed up to the scheme.

This will undoubtedly boost East London which already has one of the largest concentrations of small, fast- growing digital technology companies in Europe including:

- Last.fm – sold to CBS in 2007 for $280million

- Tweetdeck – award-winning social media browser

- Songkick – the largest global database of concerts in the world

- Dopplr – sold to Nokia for $22million

Issues

Tech City still has a number of barriers to overcome. The UK’s technology skills shortage has been an ongoing problem. Kristian Segerstrale, co-founder and chief executive of London based games firm Playfish describe a lack of experienced and specialised technologists in the UK ‘It’s a particular problem with technical roles, highly scalable consumer internet services that need a blend of commercial and technical knowledge. When we need people with hardcore, scalable service technology skills and a particular management expertise but it’s very hard to recruit for those in London. We have to import talent from Silicon Valley.’

The TGLP Skills Committee are focused on overcoming these barriers and work with the HEI sector, employers and the FE sector to identify opportunities to enhance skills in the local labour market in order to ensure there is a pool of highly skilled labour which can capitalise on the opportunities presented by the development of the digital gateway.

TGLP welcomes the launch of new educational facility in Stratford

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TGLP welcomes  today’s launch of  a new £33m educational facility, University Square  in Stratford. The new facility, which is due to open to students in September 2013, is the result of a collaboration between Birbeck University of London and University of East London which ‘will provide an alternative model of higher education’ and offer flexible part time and full time courses.

The Mayor of London who attended today’s launch said ” Attracting the brightest and best minds to London’s universities is essential if the capital is to remain a global powerhouse for education. This new building will be a magnet for students in east London, adding to the buzz which is already being generated ahead of the 2012 Games. This quarter of the capital is being transformed before our eyes and University Square will help secure the legacy regeneration for decades to come.”