ADD360 London Employment Sites Database

1.1 The GLA Group requires projections of employment in Greater London and for London’s 33 boroughs through to 2041 for a variety of purposes including for planning policy and business planning. The employment site capacity projections (the London Employment Sites Database) will support the development of the Evidence Base for the next full review of the London Plan and inform wider policy development and programmes in the GLA.

1.2 The distribution of employment across London by borough is in principle influenced by a myriad of different factors. Research has been undertaken by GLA Economics into the influence of three principal factors:

A. Historic trends – reflecting the past revealed preference of employers for locating jobs in particular boroughs.

B. Site capacity – reflecting the availability of business sites for jobs to locate in and across London (the London Employment Sites Database).

C. Transport accessibility – reflecting the changes in accessibility across London expected to flow from various improvements in London’s transport infrastructure.

1.3 These three pieces of research will then be combined to provide a single unified set of employment projections at a borough level. The London Employment Sites Database will address part B above. Part A will be undertaken in-house by GLA Economics and Part C will be the subject of a separate approval and commission.

1.4 The study will be led and project managed by GLA Economics with GLA Planning contributing staff resource to support the project and the financial contribution contained in this Assistant Director Decision (ADD). The estimated total cost of the London Employment Sites Database is up to £30,000. The costs will be met from the London Plan Programme Budget.

2.1 The London Employment Sites Database will:
• generate supply side employment capacity forecasts including information on development potential per site in terms of jobs
• support the development of the Evidence Base for the next full review of the London Plan
• inform wider policy development and business planning in the GLA.

2.2 The study output will include:
• an electronic copy of the database in Excel and
• an accompanying technical report describing its compilation, quality assurance processes, health warnings associated with the data and setting out the results based on the findings.

2.3 The tender has two components:
• Provision of projections and supporting documentation by March 2016 to feed into the London Plan full review evidence base
• Updated projections and supporting documentation by March 2017 to inform the London Plan Examination in Public.

3.1 No adverse equalities impacts are identified. The study supports the equalities objectives of the London Plan and the Greater London Authority relating to employment in London. It will provide evidence to inform the employment projections that will underpin the next full review of the London Plan. The research will support policies and implementation of programmes to improve London’s economic base, sustainability and access to a range of employment opportunities. The evidence assembled in this study will therefore contribute to wider equalities issues relating to employment.

4.1 The contract will be managed in line with standard GLA risk management procedures.

4.2 If the study were not carried out it would:

• undermine the Mayor’s evidence base to support the full review of the London Plan including associated policy and research related to the triangulated employment projections; assessments of demand for a range of employment floorspace including office and industrial space; and assessments of the potential capacity of areas across London to accommodate growth in employment
• undermine the evidence base that supports the implementation of wider GLA programmes and plans to improve London’s economic base, sustainability and access to a range of employment opportunities.

b) links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

4.3 The study will inform the next full review of the London Plan and support a wide range of Mayoral strategies and priorities including business and economy, planning, regeneration, transport, equalities, housing and land, arts and culture and the environment. It will also support the London boroughs in the preparation of Local Plans and partnership working by the GLA, boroughs and others across a range of economic and planning matters.

c) impact assessments and consultations

4.4 Impact assessments are carried out as part of the preparation of reviews and alterations to the London Plan. A separate impact assessment is not required for this research study. Consultation on the project specification has taken place within the GLA and with Transport for London (TfL).

5.1 The cost of this work of up to £30,000 will be met from the London Plan 2015-16 Programme Budget.

5.2 All appropriate budget adjustments will be completed.

Appendix 1: Specification

Invitation to Tender - London Employment Sites Database

To procure by competitive tender a set of employment site capacity projections for London and for the London Boroughs for the years 2021, 2026, 2031, 2036 and 2041. The projections should include numbers for both total employment and employees only.

The tender has two components:

• Provision of projections and supporting documentation by March 2016

• Updated projections and supporting documentation by March 2017

1. Background

The GLA Group requires projections of employment in Greater London and for London’s 33 boroughs through to 2041 for a variety of purposes including for planning policy and business planning.

GLA Economics intends to update its employment projections in both 2016 and 2017 to support the development of the Evidence Base for the next full review of the London Plan.

The distribution of employment across London by borough is in principle influenced by a myriad of different factors. Research has been undertaken by GLA Economics into the influence of three principal factors:

• Historic trends – reflecting the past revealed preference of employers for locating jobs in particular boroughs.
• Site capacity – reflecting the availability of business sites for jobs to locate in and across London.
• Transport accessibility/capacity – reflecting the changes in accessibility/capacity across London expected to flow from various improvements in London’s transport infrastructure.

These three pieces of research have then been combined to provide a single unified set of employment projections at a borough level. The three sets of documents to support the adopted March 2015 London Plan can be viewed at:

/mayor-assembly/mayor/publications/gla-intelligence/london-labour-market-projections

The borough totals are constrained to equal the projections for Greater London.

This tender is for the London employment site database to be updated.

As before GLA Economics intends to publish the transport and site capacity reports, and this time it will also provide the data supporting the employment projections in the London Data Store http://data.london.gov.uk/

2. Requirements

An update of the London employment sites database is required for use by the GLA Group. This database will be used to provide information on development potential per site in terms of jobs.

The London employment sites database generates supply side employment capacity forecasts. The database includes existing and potential development and redevelopment sites identified for employment uses.

Employment uses should cover both business and non business land use space but exclude land with permission and/or allocated for housing or other uses where employment generating activity is unlikely.

The database will need to compile data from a variety of sources and estimate employment capacity on these sites.

The database should include the following fields at a minimum

1. Unique site reference
2. Local Authority
3. Site Name
4. Address
5. Postcode
6. Easting
7. Northing
8. Ward code
9. London Transport Survey Zone
10. Source of information
11. Site/project status
12. Estimated time of implementation/completion
13. Description
14. Site Area (Ha)

1. B1a Office floorspace, B1b R&D and B1c light industrial (m²)
2. B2 General Industrial floorspace (m²)
3. B8 Storage and Distribution floorspace (m²)
4. sub-total B-space floor space(m²)
5. A1; A2; A3; A4 and A5 floorspace (m²)
6. C1 Hotel (beds)
7. C2 Residential institutions floorspace (m²)
8. D1 and D2 floorspace (m²)
9. Sui generis floorspace (m²)
10. Sub-total – Non B-space floorspace (m²)

1. Housing unit (numbers)
2. Sub-total A class jobs (numbers)
3. Office jobs (numbers)
4. Industrial jobs (numbers)
5. Sub total B space jobs (numbers)
6. Sub-total C class jobs (numbers)
7. Sub-total D class jobs (numbers)
8. Sub-total Sui generis class jobs (numbers)
9. All jobs (numbers)
10. Estimated end year
11. Notes
12. Previous use

The database should include summary tables for London, boroughs, Central Activities Zone (CAZ), Northern Isle of Dogs, rest of inner London, outer London, Opportunity and Intensification Areas and town centres. GIS boundaries for these areas will be supplied by the GLA for this work.

Please also quote as an option including a digitised site boundary file for each employment site in addition to providing a standard grid reference.

3. Data sources

Sources for information could include the following:

Existing London Development Database from the GLA

The London Development Database (LDD) from the GLA. This provides information on new floorspace and numbers of housing units in the immediate pipeline by borough, with information on developments recently completed, under construction and with outstanding planning consents. Records in the LDD are limited for non residential purposes to sites with a minimum of 1000m². For residential any new build or net change to residential units are in the system. For hotels and hostels it is 7 bedrooms or above. The data within the LDD is provided by the London Boroughs and is validated by the GLA. Approvals are submitted on a monthly basis but are allowed up to three months in arrears e.g. the 1^st July would be required to be submitted to the LDD by the 31^st October. Not all limited period permissions are recorded nor submissions that are not full or outline planning permissions.

EGI database – the GLA subscribes to the EGI London residential database and will be able to provide relevant information if required. EGI London residential database contains address, residential units (private and social) (for sites with 10 and above units for Outer London and 5 sites and above for Inner London), Office Space, Hotel rooms, site history.

National Land Use Database - this database aims to provide a consistent, comprehensive, and up to date record of all previously developed land and buildings in England that may be available for development, whether vacant, derelict, or still in productive use.

Local Plans – the GLA have digitised versions of the latest borough Local Plans.

Borough consultation

Review of press articles e.g. Property Week

London Transport Survey Zone – this will be provided by TfL

4. Database Format

The database should be provided in Excel for ease of use.

5. Quality assurance

The tender must include how the data contained within the database is to be quality assured.

6. Outputs

The study output will be an electronic copy of the database in Excel and an accompanying technical report describing its compilation, quality assurance processes, health warnings associated with the data and setting out the results based on the findings.

Reporting and Management

The successful consultant will report to and liaise with Mike Hope or other designated officer in GLA Economics from time to time.

8. Evaluation Criteria

This contract will be awarded on the basis of the tender that is the most economically advantageous. The bids will be evaluated on the following criteria – please ensure that these are addressed within your proposal.

9. Contact for queries regarding this tender

Mike Hope

GLA Economics

City Hall

The Queen’s Walk

London

SE1 2AA

Tel: 0207 983 4894

E-mail: [email protected]

10. Proposed Timetable