Industry and Business

Context

Glasgow, with an annual output of some £14.9bn and an industry base that supports some 420,000 jobs, makes a powerful contribution to the Scottish economy. In terms of output, corporate activity, service provision, and the labour market, the importance of the Glasgow economy reaches well beyond the City into the wider metropolitan area.

Glasgow’s economy has experienced significant change over the last 30 years. Traditional mercantile, engineering and marine activities have contracted. Production industries have modernised around new technologies and City Centre financial and business services and knowledge-based activities have increased in importance. Over the past decade a strong economic performance has created some 48,000 additional jobs. Across the same period, the number of residents in work has risen significantly and there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of working-age DWP benefit claimants.

The City Council seeks to improve the strength and quality of the business base and jobs in the City and places particular importance on:-

•  sustaining the physical, social, economic, cultural and environmental regeneration of Glasgow;

•  tackling poverty, social exclusion and poor health.

The challenge is to improve the number of good quality jobs and help residents gain access to those jobs that are available.

The Council works closely with Scottish Enterprise to promote the City as an industrial and business location. Encouraged by the achievements over the past ten years, a new economic development strategy framework, ‘A Step Change for Glasgow’, was introduced in autumn 2006 to move Glasgow forward over the next decade. It identifies the need for measures to support high-value jobs, innovation and higher productivity; shared prosperity; and, the alignment of the business, physical, cultural and social environments. In November 2008, a ‘Step Change Action Plan to 2013’ was launched setting out the main things that Glasgow will do over the next 5 years towards achieving the goals set out in the strategy. The Action Plan was presented at a time of global economic turndown which has since developed into a recession considered to be the worst in recent memory and it is predicted that it will take a number of years for the country to recover.

However, years of strategic investment and restructuring in the city’s economy have left Glasgow well positioned to meet the challenges ahead. Some of the biggest ‘step change’ projects, including the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Clyde Gateway, the International Financial Services District and the M74 completion are fully committed and are a strong foundation for economic progress over the next decade.

Key Facts

Employment

The number of jobs in Glasgow fell from 559,000 to 382,000 between 1950 and 1991, mainly through the contraction of manufacturing industries, which suffered a 90% decline over this period.  The lowest point, in employment terms, came in 1996 when Glasgow supported some 352,200 jobs.

The City’s employment fortunes, however, have however improved dramatically since the mid-nineties. In particular, a significant turnaround took place over the 1997 to 2002 period, with employment rising to 408,000.   Further net job growth has continued since then although the rate of growth has reduced from an annual average of +2.0 % (1997 to 2002) to around +0.6 % per annum (2002 to 2007).  Total employment in Glasgow in 2007 was estimated to be around 419,700.  Glasgow is now overwhelmingly a service sector economy with only around one in ten jobs being in production activities.

Total Employment in Glasgow

Jobs	2007	2002	1997
Employee Jobs	390.7	379.3	340.4
Self-employed	26.5	25.4	25.5
Armed  Forces/ Government Trainees	2.5	3.3	5.4
TOTAL	419.7	408.0	371.3

(Thousands)

Employment by Sector

At March 2008, the City’s ‘marketable’ industrial and business land supply totaled 163 hectares.  A further 47 hectares were available within older industrial areas.

The quality of the land supply is one of the main factors influencing industrial and business development in the City.  Analysis reveals that the land supply is increasingly dominated by small sites, many of which experience constraints due to servicing requirements or contamination.  The majority of sites are less than 5.00 ha and few sites are serviced and immediately available for development.

Industrial and Business Development Activity

Between April 2007 and March 2008, 44 industrial and business developments were either completed or under construction, resulting in the take–up of almost 17 hectares of land for industrial and business use and generating almost 124,000 square metres of floorspace.  The following table identifies the nature of this development activity.

Industrial and Business Development Activity 2007/08

Type of Development	No. of Developments	Take-Up (Ha)	Floorspace (m2)	% of Land Take-Up
Class 4 Business	11	3.21	31,920	35.0%
Class 5 General Industry	5	1.68	5,401	18.3%
Class 6 Storage or Distribution	4	1.70	7,940	18.5%
Mixed Classes	2	2.58	9,275	28.2
Total	22	9.17	54,536	100.0%

Source: Glasgow City Council, Development & Regeneration Services

This level of take-up represents an increase on the 14.71 ha taken-up the previous year and is only marginally below the 10 year average of 17.77 ha.

The Glasgow and the Clyde Valley Joint Structure Plan Alteration 2006 identifies four Core Economic Development Areas (CEDAs) in the City.  These are:

These areas reflect traditional concentrations of industrial and business activity in the City and are also the areas which have experienced the greatest loss of employment through the restructuring of the city’s economy.  The Council seeks to promote a higher rate of economic activity and promote employment opportunities in these areas.

Industrial and Business Premises

In common with many other cities, the decline of manufacturing activity within Glasgow has left a legacy of vacant industrial/business premises, many of which are old and ill-suited for modern businesses.  Over 80% of the City’s industrial floorspace is over 20 years old and around 12% of all industrial floorspace is vacant.  The condition of many of the City’s industrial and business areas does not represent the most effective or efficient use of land.  This offers potential for land use change, however, such change needs to ensure that existing businesses and employment are maintained and safeguarded whenever possible.

Office Development

Office-based services are increasingly important to the City’s economy and have helped consolidate Glasgow’s position as the largest office centre in Scotland and one of the largest in the UK.  The bulk of office floorspace in the City is located within the City Centre (60%).

	Total Office and Business Floorspace September 2008 (Gross sq m)
	Citywide	City Centre	Outwith City Centre
	2,441,514	1,460,054	981,460

Source: Glasgow City Council, Development & Regeneration Services