Revised Draft Local Plan, Chapter 10: Economic development

10.1 Salford is transforming into a modern global city, and significant investment in recent years has delivered large numbers of new jobs and opportunities. Forecasts suggest a highly positive economic future and this Local Plan sets out a strategy that seeks to deliver it. In order that the benefits are felt by all segments of the population it is critical that the city grows in an inclusive way, with public, private, community and social sectors working together to create opportunities that are accessible to all.

10.2 Salford already has a strong economic role, and has tremendous economic potential given its location at the heart of the extensive Greater Manchester conurbation, its easy access to a large pool of skilled labour, and its excellent transport links via motorway, rail, water and air. The city’s future prosperity, and its contribution to the economic growth of the wider conurbation, will be heavily dependent on how successfully it can take advantage of this economic potential. However, this must be done in a careful and sensitive way, so that short-term economic growth does not undermine the longer term prospects of the city for example through the degradation of important environmental assets.

10.3 The spatial strategy for economic development in Salford focuses on where the city has the greatest economic potential when balanced against environmental and social considerations. It recognises that Salford is part of a much larger functional economic area covering the whole of Greater Manchester and beyond. The economic success of Salford, and the prosperity of its residents, will therefore be heavily reliant on investment and opportunities outside the city, and improved public transport to access them. Equally, economic growth within Greater Manchester as a whole will only be maximised if Salford makes a major contribution.

10.4 The south-eastern area of Salford forms part of Greater Manchester’s largest concentration of economic activity, stretching from Central Park in Manchester in the east through the City Centre and Salford Quays to Trafford Park and the Trafford Centre. This central economic area provides an enormous number of jobs and diverse range of businesses that are fundamental to the success not just of Greater Manchester but also the North of England more generally. Salford has an essential role to play in strengthening the success of this economic concentration, and a large proportion of the city’s new jobs and business investment will be focused there. One key aspect of this will be the further expansion of the City Centre’s core office market into Salford, taking advantage of key central locations alongside the River Irwell and Chapel Street. Another will be the continued growth of MediaCityUK, which will see further expansion within Salford Quays. These projects will be fundamental to supporting the international competitiveness of Greater Manchester, helping to distinguish it from other conurbations within the country. Extending this huge area of economic activity westwards, the new Port Salford tri-modal freight interchange will be a major asset for Greater Manchester, enabling the more sustainable movement of freight by rail and water, and reducing reliance on heavy goods vehicles.

10.5 The city’s existing employment areas will continue to have an important role, complementing new development to provide a varied portfolio of sites and premises to suit a wide range of occupiers from business start-ups to major inward investments. Changing market demands may mean that some of the city’s older employment areas will find it increasingly difficult to secure longer term investment and occupation. In order to make the best use of available land it may be appropriate for such areas to take a new direction, which could involve the introduction of non-employment uses including residential and leisure. It will be important that this process is carefully managed such that the city’s businesses are properly supported.

Economic inclusion

10.6 Salford is one of the key locations for economic growth in Greater Manchester but has an above average level of unemployment amongst its residents. Some of the areas that will see the largest increase in job opportunities over the next 20 years are located immediately adjacent to some of the most deprived neighbourhoods. It will be essential for the long-term success of the city that its residents fully share in the benefits of economic growth and development, including through the employment and training opportunities that they create. This will not only be important for delivering social objectives, such as raising people out of poverty, reducing inequalities and improving health, but will also support other objectives such as reducing the need to travel by using local labour.

10.7 There are many ways in which developments can support these objectives, not least by targeting Salford residents when seeking to fill new jobs, including in the construction phase of development, and providing opportunities for residents to learn new skills such as through local apprenticeship and training schemes. This could be done in partnership with existing local providers, or through those delivered directly by the businesses involved. The city council is particularly keen for employers to sign up to the City Mayor’s Employment Charter, which seeks to ensure that employers put Salford first, buy goods and services within Salford, and adopt the best possible working conditions. By doing so, they will help to secure a more inclusive and sustainable city.

10.8 Compliance with this policy will be determined primarily through the submission of Social Value Strategies under Policy F2.

Offices

10.9 The continued supply of large quantities of new office floorspace will be vital to supporting the hugely important strategic economic roles of the City Centre and Salford Quays. Within City Centre Salford, there are opportunities to continue the expansion of the central business district into New Bailey and along Chapel Street, as well as enhancing the Innovation Park to maximise spin-off activities from the neighbouring University of Salford. Within Salford Quays, new office floorspace will support the continued growth of MediaCityUK, and strengthen other key sectors such as business, financial and professional services.

10.10 Opportunities for new office development elsewhere in the city will generally be of a smaller scale, helping town centres and existing employment areas to adapt to the changing structure of the economy and provide a diverse range of jobs and business opportunities. Eccles Town Centre has particular potential due to its close proximity to MediaCityUK and excellent transport connections.

Industry and warehousing

10.11 Industrial and warehousing accommodation is vital to a wide range of businesses across many economic sectors and it is important that Salford maintains a diverse offer which is able to meet varied needs in terms of cost, quality, size and location. The mix of existing and proposed sites and premises within the city will allow for a varied choice of accommodation for potential investors and occupiers.

10.12 The identification of new high quality employment sites is required in order to raise the attractiveness of the city as an investment location and to offer a good range of job opportunities in the industrial and warehousing sectors. The permitted Port Salford scheme is a key element of this new offer, both at the city and wider sub-regional level. Its tri-modal connections will provide a unique opportunity to deliver more sustainable logistics activity. Other opportunities within the city to deliver new high quality premises, which are not allocated in this plan as they benefit from planning permission and/or are within existing employment areas, include sites at Ashton’s Field (Walkden North), Logistics North (Little Hulton) and Northbank Industrial Estate (Cadishead). The city’s older employment areas also make an important contribution to the portfolio of sites and premises, providing for a large number of jobs and a range of occupation and redevelopment opportunities, and are protected accordingly under Policy EC6.

Employment allocations

10.13 Many sites in Salford will be developed for employment uses over the next few decades, but they have not been specifically allocated in the Local Plan because they have planning permission and/or are located within an existing employment area (and hence covered by policy EC6) or in a major mixed-use area such as City Centre Salford or Salford Quays where retaining flexibility over the precise uses on individual sites is beneficial. Details of such sites can be found in Salford’s Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment.

10.14 However, two sites have been allocated for employment purposes due to their strategic importance to the city.

Port Salford

10.15 Port Salford is currently under construction alongside the Manchester Ship Canal, to the south of the A57 and west of the M60, and will include an inland port and warehousing facility, a container terminal and a distribution park. Around 150,000m² of employment floorspace is being provided across four large units. One unit has now been completed and is occupied, leaving potential for a further 120,000m² of employment floorspace on the site.

10.16 The tri-modal connections providing ship, rail and road connections will help to improve the sustainability of Greater Manchester’s distribution and supply chain activity, enabling goods and components to be moved by more sustainable modes closer to their origin or destination, and reducing the total distances travelled by road. The direct connections via the Manchester Ship Canal to the post-Panamax facilities at the Port of Liverpool will provide easy access to the very largest container ships. Port Salford should help to boost the competitiveness of Greater Manchester by significantly enhancing its logistics capabilities and the quality of investment opportunities, both in the immediate vicinity of the freight terminal and at nearby employment areas in both Salford and Trafford.

10.17 It will be important to ensure that it is a genuinely tri-modal facility with a significant proportion of freight being moved by water and rail rather than road, and that the impacts of traffic on the local area are carefully managed. The delivery of the berths on the Manchester Ship Canal and the rail spur from the Manchester-Liverpool line is therefore fundamental to the success of the scheme.

10.18 The tri-modal connections will make Port Salford unique in Greater Manchester, and hence it is appropriate to consider the ways in which the benefits of these connections could be maximised. The Greater Manchester Spatial Framework proposes the expansion of Port Salford onto land that is currently in the Green Belt to the north of the A57 and south of the M62 motorway, immediately to the north and west of Barton Aerodrome. This expansion will only be allowed to proceed once the rail spur, canal berths and further highway improvements are completed and operational.

Salford Innovation Park

10.19 Salford Innovation Park benefits from an excellent location adjacent to the University of Salford’s main campus, only a short distance from Salford Crescent station, and also has super-fast broadband connectivity. However, the area is not currently fulfilling its potential, and there are opportunities to increase the scale and range of activities within it. In particular, the area has enormous potential to support business start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) looking to capitalise on the high quality research undertaken by the neighbouring university. As such the Innovation Park could play a key role in developing the links between education and industry that are central to the university’s Industrial Collaboration Zone aspirations.

Existing employment areas

10.20 Salford’s existing employment areas have a vital role to play in the city’s future economic success, providing a broad range of job opportunities that are accessible to local communities. It will be important to ensure that their economic function is not unnecessarily lost because of pressure for sites to be redeveloped for other uses such as housing.

10.21 It is anticipated that during the Local Plan period there will be some existing employment areas, and parts thereof, that will find it increasingly difficult to attract and retain businesses due to their location and/or quality of accommodation. The release of such sites and areas for other uses may be appropriate, and this will be a significant source of land for housing. However, it will be important to carefully control this process so as to ensure that it is only those sites and areas that are unable to secure a long-term economic future, or that have been identified through an appropriate process as being essential for other uses, which are released. A more flexible approach is taken within the City Centre, Ordsall Waterfront and Salford Quays, because it is anticipated these areas will be redeveloped for high-density schemes that will provide much greater numbers of jobs overall as well as a range of other uses including housing.

Monitoring

10.22 The main indicators that will be used to monitor this chapter are:

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