Chesterfield future plans revealed
The Borough Council has published its Growth Strategy
The council’s vision for the future of Chesterfield sees more jobs with better employment options and fewer empty shops in the town centre.
Chesterfield Borough Council has published its 2023-27 Growth Strategy, which strives towards a ‘thriving borough, delivering environmentally sustainable growth that benefits local people’.
A report into the strategy gives an assessment of the local economy, stating: “Chesterfield’s employment base is forecast to grow by four per cent between 2021 and 2030, equating to an additional 2,000 jobs, with the largest number of jobs created in the health and social care sector, followed by logistics, professional services and hospitality.”
It added that the area’s unemployment rate has shown good recovery following the Covid pandemic, with 3.3 per cent of adults currently out of work, compared to 3.6 per cent nationally, but acknowledged the borough still has above average youth unemployment with 6.5 per cent compared to 4.7 per cent nationwide.
“It is anticipated that the local unemployment rate will now start increasing as the national economy enters a recessionary phase,” the report continued.
The strategy highlights the prominence of ‘lower-skill and lower-wage employment’ in the area, which it states impacts upon the ‘viability of town centres’, as well as the historic loss of industry leading to ‘high levels of deprivation in some local communities’.
To address these issues, the strategy outlines targets the council hopes to achieve by 2030, which include increasing the number of employee jobs by 2,000, increasing the number of businesses by 400 overall and higher value businesses by 100.
The strategy also seeks to reduce the town centre vacancy rate from 13.2 per cent currently to below 10 per cent, and maintain a below average unemployment rate.
The authority plans to achieve this by delivering an Innovation Support Programme and commission activities to support business start-ups, digital resilience and low carbon growth, as well as managing the Enterprise Chesterfield Network as a focus for the growth of higher value businesses and working with Destination Chesterfield to develop marketing and investment campaigns.
It also plans to establish a Skills and Employment Partnership to give residents the skills required by the emerging jobs market, enable local businesses to access workplace training initiatives and establish the Construction Skills Hub in Staveley to deliver construction training and employment locally.
The authority will continue to invest in regeneration projects including the Stephenson Memorial Hall and Chesterfield Station to make town centres more attractive to visitors and residents.
Members are due to vote upon the final strategy at a full council meeting on Wednesday, February 22.