Localisation of industrial activity across England’s LEPs: 2008 & 2012

BIS commissioned the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC) to use the new Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) as the sub-national spatial frame in England to provide data on industrial clusters. The analysis is designed as an information source for the LEPS as they prepare their new strategic economic plans. We use a very simple Location Quotient (LQ) measure which is designed to show the extent to which a particular activity is over- or under-represented in each LEP relative to the GB national average. We do this for 2008 and 2012 using the local unit or workplace version of the Office of National Statistics Business Structure Database. For the detailed 5-digit standard industrial classification (SIC) we present for each LEP two tables for each year. First, a table of the top 20 sectors by LQ score with details of the number of workplaces and total employment in the sector and the overall GB share of employment in the LEP. Second, a table of the top 20 sectors by jobs. Viewed together they provide an overall summary of the nature and scale of the clusters in each LEP and an indication of their importance in terms of jobs. The calculation of LQs is of course just a first step in the process of cluster identification since there are many other dimensions of a cluster it does not capture (for example the fact that strategically important supply chains extend beyond individual 5-digit SIC boundaries). A large LQ is not sufficient to indicate a policy-relevant cluster since many contribute only very small job numbers in a LEP. A commentary is provided for each of the 39 English LEPs, and although most activities are broadly distributed, there are some industries where particular LEPs have particular concentrations in terms of employment. The identification of these local concentrations of industrial activity is, of course, just a starting point for a much more detailed discussion in order to understand how the analysis can be interpreted and connected to local economic strategies. In particular, there is no simple 'read-through' from a ‘cluster’ identified by a high LQ to a strategic focus.