Employment Growth Needs

Building on recent success in terms of the delivery of new jobs, the overall target for jobs growth is for an increase of 33,000 jobs from 2018 to 2038. This figure has been established through local trend-based evidence⁵⁴.

Providing the right sites in the right places for sectors with the greatest economic potential will support continued growth and a vibrant economy. Evidence⁵⁵ shows that:

1. a range of sectors will drive economic and employment growth, many of which are within high value knowledge-intensive sectors that are increasingly important to the wider UK economy. Greater Norwich is home to several internationally recognised businesses and boasts a diverse property portfolio. Its increasingly entrepreneurial economy is underpinned by a strong foundation of academic and commercial research, making it well positioned nationally and internationally to compete for future business investment as part of the Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor as well as continuing to grow its own business base;
2. growth potential is greatest in five high impact sectors identified in the Norfolk and Suffolk Economic Strategy⁵⁶: advanced manufacturing and engineering; agri-tech; energy; ICT/digital culture and life sciences. Growth of these sectors will help Greater Norwich to play a key role nationally and internationally in assisting the transformation to a post-carbon economy⁵⁷.
3. the total amount of allocated and permitted employment land in 2018 is more than  enough to provide for expected and promoted growth, so the policy does not make significant additional allocations of employment land beyond those already identified in existing local plan documents.

This plan therefore allocates employment sites totalling around 360 hectares including key strategic employment land in Norwich City Centre, the Norwich Airport area, Rackheath, Broadland Business Park, Broadland Gate, Norwich Research Park (NRP), Wymondham/Hethel, Longwater and the Food Enterprise Park. These are set out in the Key Diagram and in policy 1. The strategic employment locations provide for growth of all the key sectors and are supported by good quality infrastructure and nearby housing, either existing or planned.

Parts of the NRP have Enterprise Zone status with simplified planning rules, business rate discounts and superfast broadband designed to promote research-based business growth. The Food Enterprise Park has Food Enterprise Zone status and a Local Development Order on parts of the site to encourage and support food production, processing and agriculture through the co-location of commercial enterprises.

The key strategic sites contribute to the Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor, supporting a globally significant axis between Cambridge University, UEA/NRP and their associated businesses. The Tech Corridor links to other significant growth corridors: London-Stansted-Cambridge and the Cambridge - Milton Keynes-Oxford Arc (CaMkOx).

Supporting and demonstrating a link to nationally significant growth corridors will assist in attracting inward investment and accessing funding opportunities as Government funding will be linked to the delivery of the Norfolk and Suffolk Economic Strategy and the emerging Local Industrial Strategy for Norfolk and Suffolk.

The GNLP also allocates land and allows for additional windfall delivery of smaller scale sites to provide for jobs growth elsewhere in the urban area, towns and villages, providing local job opportunities and supporting small-scale businesses and a vibrant rural economy.

Evidence shows that there is an underlying demand for good quality office growth and employment space in Norwich city centre. The policies for the economy (policy 6) and for Norwich urban area (policy 7.1) address the need to ensure that high density employment uses are concentrated in highly accessible locations, particularly in the city centre, whilst at the same time recognising that there will be an increase in home and remote working during the plan period. 

⁵³Government consultations in autumn 2020 pointed to significant reforms to the planning system, including to the form and role of local plans, and strongly suggest that additional housing growth will be needed in the next review of the plan. As set out in paragraph 4, this plan is being progressed under transitional arrangements provided by government as part of the reforms.

⁵⁴The East of England Forecast Model (EEFM)

⁵⁵The 2017 Greater Norwich Employment, Retail and Town Centres Study (the GVA study) and its 2020 addendum

⁵⁶Available here 

⁵⁷The emerging Local Industrial Strategy supports clean growth