Report of the Core Performance and Intelligence Team

This is the Quarterly Economy Dashboard for 2018/19 Quarter 1.  The report also includes the annual survey of hours and earnings estimates for the proportion of employees earning below the Real Living Wage for all UK Local Authorities, regions and countries by gender and full-time or part-time status for both employee place of residence and place of work.

The Committee considered the Quarterly Economy Dashboard for quarter 1 of 2018/10, which provided statistical data on economic development, housing ad the visitor economy.

The Performance Analyst and Governance Lead presented the report to the Committee.

Some of the key points that arose from the committees discussions were:-

·                Members welcomed the wealth and breadth of data that the dashboard provided;

·                Was it possible to undertake further comparisons of performance with other core cities;

·                What data source had been used in relation to house price and rental price information and was it possible to have data on median house price and price per square foot;

·                Clarification was sought as to what Officers defined as the area of the city centre and what neighbourhoods were included within the definition;

·                What was the scope and definition of empty properties;

·                It was felt that further information could be included in future reports on the difference in wages of residents of the city and those who worked in the city, the increase in house prices and rental costs across wards and the number of new build properties bought by foreign investors and this impact on the housing market;

·                The slight increase in the percentage of Manchester residents with no qualifications could possibly be attributed to the impact of austerity measures;

·                Why had the number of apprenticeship starts decreased; and

·                Was there any data available on how people previously travelled to financial centres prior to the expansion of flights from Manchester Airport

The Performance Analyst and Governance Lead explained that there was an online version of the dashboard that provided a wider range of data sets compared to the printed version before Members as this version only contained the most recent data.  He agreed that if further data sets were felt necessary these could be included in future dashboards or as a bespoke data provision.  He confirmed that it would be possible to compare any data set provided by a local authority or at a core city level.

The Committee was advised that the housing data was obtained from Land Registry data and was point based data which was not constrained by boundaries such as Low Super Output Areas or ward boundaries.  The area referred to as the City Centre was considered to be broader than Deansgate and Piccadilly wards and the Performance Analyst and Governance Lead agreed to circulate a map as to what was considered the boundary of the City Centre.  It was reported that in terms of empty properties, the volume was at a record low and short term empty data fluctuated due to supply.  The  Performance Analyst and Governance Lead agreed to provide median house and rental prices across the city to Committee Members.

The Performance Analyst and Governance Lead advised that in terms of the NVQ data this was subject to confidence intervals of plus/minus 2.5%, and  changes year on year were usually within this tolerance which made it difficult to identify any specific issues.  He advised that the Apprenticeship starts had registered a decline prior to the introduction the Apprenticeship Levy and the figures had not yet been released following its introduction to undertake a comparison.  Further analysis on this would be undertaken when the 2017/18 figures became available.  He advised that it was unlikely to obtain the necessary data on how people previously travelled to financial centres.

Decision

The Committee

(1)        Notes the report; and

(2)          Request the Performance Analyst and Governance Lead to provide further information to Committee Members on the mean housing and rental prices in with a specific focus on the Wythenshawe area and the similar data on price per square foot if possible.