Meaningful answers for Richmond
July 2010
In July 2010 Roger Tym & Partners were commissioned by the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames to undertake their Local Economic Assessment (LEA).
The LEA tells the economic ‘story of the place’ and addresses questions specific to the borough such as the potential of selected sectors; the role of town centres and local shopping parades; and the scale of emerging labour market issues such as home-working. This analysis will contribute to the evidence base for a number of major strategies and plans including: the Community Plan, the Local Development Framework and the Economic Development Strategy. It also fed in the borough’s inward investment pack launched in December 2010.
The LEA looks in turn at the three broad groups operating in the local economy: businesses, workers and residents. As well as presenting their main characteristics, it explores their impact on the borough’s economy, what drives their decisions and how they interact with the rest of London and the UK through commuting, shopping patterns, supply chains, tourism and inward investment.
In order to assess Richmond’s strengths and weaknesses, the LEA takes a holistic view of the economy and, as well as standard economic indicators it also considers the factors which can constrain or enable economic growth such as housing affordability, transport or employment land supply.
As a result of our extensive research we identified five priority economic issues for the borough. The LEA and these issues were presented to a workshop which brought together LSP partners with strategic lead officers and members, service heads and thematic specialists in order to test the findings and collect feedback on the priority issues.
The five issues were refined and agreed providing an evidence-based consensus for the next stages of policy making in Richmond.
Further information
