New Local Plan - Issues & Options (Regulation 18)

6. Amount and Location of Employment Growth

6.1 Government policy sets out an economic role for the planning system to help build a strong, responsive, and competitive economy by ensuring sufficient land of the right type is available in the right places and at the right time to support growth and innovation.

6.2 Harborough District is part of the Leicester and Leicestershire Functional Economic Market Area (FEMA) and has a close interrelationship with Leicester, other authorities within Leicestershire and adjoining authorities beyond. In terms of employment, Market Harborough and Lutterworth are our main economic centres. The District, particularly the west as home to Magna Park, benefits from its central location at the heart of England with good motorway connections proving popular with companies in the logistics sector.

6.3 Delivery of employment land has averaged 0.3 Hectares per year for Offices including Research & Development and 1 Hectare per year for Industrial & Distribution (excluding strategic warehousing) since 2011, and the density of businesses per 1,000 population remains high which in recent years has supported developments such as the Harborough Innovation Centre and Grown On Centre. The rural and wider economy continues to adapt and diversify, responding to structural economic change including the impact of BREXIT and the COVID19 pandemic.

6.4 Government policy requires plans to help create the conditions in which businesses can invest, expand, and adapt taking into account local business needs, wider opportunities for development and the specific locational requirements of different sectors. As with housing, this requires an appropriate strategy considering reasonable alternatives based on proportionate evidence and taking into account any needs that cannot be met in neighbouring areas (unmet need).

6.5 This consultation therefore sets out options for the scale and location of employment growth across the District over the proposed plan period 2020 to 2041.

Scale of Economic Growth

6.6 The starting point for determining the amount of economic growth, or employment land and jobs, we should plan for is an economic needs assessment. The Leicester and Leicestershire Housing and Economic Needs Assessment (HENA) was published in June 2022. This identifies what we need to provide for the period to 2041. Figures are provided in Hectares with an equivalent floorspace in square metres.

Table 15 Total employment needs between 2021 and 2041 by square metres and hectares

6.7 The need for strategic warehousing (B8 in units >9,000sqm) has been identified in another separate evidence study (see section below).

6.8 The figures above do not take into account development built or lost since 2020, nor do they take account of sites in the pipeline that we expect to come forward in the period to 2031 (e.g. sites allocated for employment in the adopted Local Plan, made Neighbourhood Plans and planning permissions) including:

• Airfield Business Park, Market Harborough (Policy MH5 undeveloped part)
• Compass Point Business Park, Market Harborough (Policy MH6 undeveloped part)
• Wellington Business Park, Market Harborough (Policy MH4 allocation)
• East of Lutterworth SDA, Lutterworth (Policy L1e/f allocation)
• Land south of Lutterworth Road/Coventry Road, Lutterworth (Policy L2 allocation)
• Land off Marlborough Drive, Fleckney (Policy F2 allocation)
• Beauchamp Business Park, Kibworth (Policy K1 allocation)
• Elm Business Park, Broughton Astley (Broughton Astley Neighbourhood Plan Policy EMP1 allocation)

6.9 All existing commitments will contribute towards meeting the need. The amount of new employment land required to identified to 2041 is shown in Table 16.

Table 16 New employment land required to 2041
Shading denotes an over-supply

6.10 Taking account of supply shows that the amount of new land needed to 2041 (the residual requirement) is negative which means we already have enough land identified for both offices and industrial uses. However, looking longer term to 2051 and taking into account the current oversupply the HENA indicates that we will need to plan for an additional 10.2 hectares. This is driven by a need for more industrial land.

6.11 Neighbouring Leicester City has an unmet industrial need to 2036. To meet Government requirements, the Leicester and Leicestershire authorities commissioned consultants to prepare an Employment Distribution Paper apportioning the unmet industrial need to neighbouring districts. This evidence, which informed the Statement of Common Ground, suggests there should be no increase to Harborough's employment requirement. The situation regarding any unmet employment needs in the FEMA beyond 2036 is unknown.

6.12 Taking the above into account three alternative options for the scale of employment growth have been identified:

Table 17 Options for employment growth

6.13 Any growth above the HENA level, for example under Option C, may require further evidence and could increase the District's housing requirement.

Scale of Employment Growth

Options for the Location of Employment Growth

6.14 If additional employment land is to be planned for, we need to consider where growth will go and how it will be delivered. Government policy requires local plans to promote a sustainable pattern of development.

6.15 The current focus for employment development is within and adjoining Market Harborough and Lutterworth, and to a lesser extent some of the District's larger villages. Going forward any distribution of employment growth will need to address local business needs and be informed by the outcome of this consultation and further work.

6.16 Depending on the scale of growth, the following three broad locational options have been identified:

Option 1: Intensifying the density of employment uses in existing employment areas in appropriate and sustainable locations. This option focuses on making more efficient use of land and recognises the marginal viability of employment development in Harborough District

Option 2: Continue with the current approach of focussing new employment land in the District's main economic centres (Market Harborough, Lutterworth) and larger sustainable settlements. This would concentrate growth in our most sustainable settlements which accommodate or are most accessible to the resident workforce.

Option 3: Align new employment land provision with areas of significant housing growth. This would achieve a balance of jobs and homes in areas of significant growth, be that settlements or strategic sites.

6.17 These options have been assessed though the Sustainability Appraisal. Each of the above options would integrate with the preferred spatial strategy to deliver employment growth that also addresses the other emerging objectives of the Plan.

6.18 Once we have identified a Preferred Strategy for distributing growth, we will need to consider which sites are the most appropriate. A long list of sites has been identified through the SHELAA, this includes relatively few sites proposed for a single economic use (except strategic distribution) and a greater number for a mix of economic uses either with or without housing development. Amongst the long list of sites, the capacity for employment is greatest in larger villages with relatively few opportunities in or adjoining Market Harborough and Lutterworth or which were assessed as deliverable in the short term (i.e. 0-5 years).

6.19 Alongside the allocation of any new employment sites, policies that protect existing employment areas will be retained. Further evidence may be required in this regard.

6.20 Currently we also have specific policies for Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground and Leicester Airport. These recognise the importance and specialist nature of these sites and control development to manage its impact on their rural locations. A continuation of this approach is envisaged going forward.

Location of Employment Growth

Strategic Storage and Distribution uses

6.21 Harborough, specifically areas to west of the District along the M1 corridor, is a very attractive location for strategic storage and distribution uses (strategic B8 in units >9,000sqm) or large warehouses. It falls within what is known as the 'golden triangle' for the sector due to its central location and excellent access to the M1, M6, A5 and A14 (the Strategic Road Network). The sector is dynamic, globally driven and its functional requirements change to respond to business and society's demands.

6.22 Interest in warehousing in the District has been high since the early 1990's, when Magna Park at Lutterworth was first established, and in recent years with its significant extensions known as Magna Park North and Magna Park South which are well under construction.

6.23 Strategic warehousing and logistics is an acknowledged strategic cross boundary issue for local authorities in Leicester and Leicestershire which, together with the Leicester & Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership, have collectively commissioned evidence on the sector.

Scale of Strategic Warehousing Growth

6.24 The Warehousing and Logistics in Leicester and Leicestershire: Managing Growth and Change (April 2021) study forecasts future need for strategic warehousing (B8 in units >9,000sqm) to 2041 and 2051.

6.25 The study recommends that Leicester and Leicestershire need to provide for circa 2,570,000sqm of additional floorspace between 2020 and 2041. Based on 43% of future need at rail-served sites, 1,106,000sqm is needed at rail-served sites and 1,466,000sqm at non-rail served sites.

6.26 The study has a base date of 1st April 2020. Taking into account the supply at that time (land with planning permission, allocations, and vacant units), there was a remaining balance of 768,000sqm (or approximately 307Ha) at rail served sites and 392,000 sqm (or approximately 112Ha) at non-rail served sites which should be planned for to 2041. Joint monitoring by the authorities has since updated the supply position on 1^st April 2021 which reduces the amount to be planned for rail served sites to 718,875sqm and 301,293sqm at non-rail served sites.

6.27 Rather than split the requirement by District the study identifies general broad areas across Leicestershire, termed Areas of Opportunity, where strategic warehousing could be located. Area of Opportunity 6 (M1 corridor south of Leicester) impacts on Harborough District and is identified for non-rail served provision only. The amount of growth to be apportioned to Areas of Opportunity has not yet been agreed with other local authority partners in Leicester and Leicestershire.

Options for the Location of Strategic Warehousing

6.28 Harborough and local authority partners have entered into a Statement of Common Ground relating to Strategic Warehousing and Logistics (Sept 2021). The SoCG sets out 'next steps' for planning for the future needs of the sector to 2041.

6.29 A joint evidence study to consider the apportionment of the rail and non-rail served shortfall within the sub-region is currently underway. This will inform an approach to meeting the Leicester and Leicestershire need.

6.30 Harborough's current approach (set out in the adopted Local Plan) focuses all strategic warehousing growth at Magna Park in the form of the two extensions which are currently under construction. However, Area of Opportunity 6 encompasses a wider geographical area. In addition, current policy safeguards Magna Park for strategic warehousing including ancillary uses in units greater than 9,000sqm.

Approach to Strategic Warehousing