Centre of Cities Annual Outlook report

Some interesting and positive news about Coventry: http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventry-comes-out-top-annual-8469490 This is good, IMHO. http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventry-comes-out-top-annual-8469490 (Live link added)

I think I would really worry about the "Qualification" deficit. I once saw a scheme drafted by an architect for the improvement of a town which had labour available and which it hoped to attract high level "fall out enterprise" from a nearby university The biggest problem was the lack of qualifications of the endemic population and thus no transference of industry. The above was just an exercise, but I believe Coventry should pay real attention if they wish to use Coventrians rather than imported labour.

But isn't that just asking for Coventry to remain second rate? You look at the qualification and say we should be looking to that, which means we should look for lower-paid, unskilled work to suit the populace. If we do that where's the incentive for Coventrians to get the skills/qualifications? If they do there's no jobs for them. So they either have to then move away or just don't bother in the first place. There is evidence of many talented and educated people from Coventry being successful. They've just done it outside of the city because that is where they need to go to get that success. Similarly throughout the city's history people have flocked here for employment and many of us have relatives from elsewhere who moved here for work, often quite unskilled but with reliable wages. This is imported labour, but those people then settle and their families become Coventrians. So why not try to get higher skilled, higher paid people to settle here instead/as well as the lesser-skilled people we've 'imported' in the past.

Hi all Sadly, Coventry is currently 51 in position of retail spending, in spite of being eleventh in terms of size. The boss of M&S in our city centre dreams of having relative takings to match those of 1960, when the Coventry store was internally listed as No4 in the country. It was No 2 for total Saturday morning takings.

During my entire working life I worked at least eight hours a day and at least five days a week. I know of two supermarkets in this city that have a policy of employing most of the staff part time. This usually is a six hour day or less. Bar work in pubs is similar. The reason for this is clear,no holiday or sick pay to find,probably no pension either. A lot of women including my granddaughter have a few hours a day flipping burgers at McDonalds and a cleaning job in the evening. My granddaughter is not thick but with no proper experience cannot find a job. This is all good for the government figures as all these people without a proper job cannot sign on for job seekers allowance and so give artificial employment figures.

This goes way beyond retail, which has become a council obsession and seems like it is the only area they're concerned with, and IMO it's a very narrow, American way of looking at things. There are plenty of extremely desirable places to live that have very little retail at all - they focus on others aspects. Anyway, if you want an improved position of retail spending, you need people to have money to spend, They'll spend more and attract new shops of varying clientele to add to the mix. But to get people with money to spend you need to offer jobs that pay more. Those are, by and large, one's requiring a good education and professional qualifications. So let's try and use this to attract those jobs. Yes, it is likely a number of people will be 'imported' and those wages will be spent elsewhere, certainly to begin with at least. But people would prefer to be nearer their work where possible, so if you give them housing that is acceptable, especially if it is less expensive than similar properties in already established locations, they will eventually move and once a few start more follow.

Not now a resident,so not up to date with local conditions, but may I enquire Whether there is any business start up impetus from research originating at the University of Warwick, as there is close to Cambridge for instance. Referring to outside labour coming in with skills, my Grandfather was an immigrant from Manchester, he started an electro plating business (probably late 1920/early 1930`s) two daughters one married a school teacher, the other married (eventually) a chap from Alfred Herberts research projects.

The University of Warwick set up the 'Science Park' in the 1980s (Perhaps one of the only developments in Coventry during that time, and one of the first in the UK). Coventry University has the 'techno centre' at Parkside and a number of other research facilities that are used by industry. The city has two good Universities that contribute a lot more than just students to the local economy! (Warwick was involved with a business park in Binley as well, I believe.) I believe local Universities are also involved in the Ansty Manufacturing Technology Centre. This report is interesting, as in the 1980s Coventry was in a very bad place, with a heavily biased workforce making it unable to attract 'new' industries. That no longer seems to be the case. However, the population is still poorly skilled. Retail has always been relatively poor in Coventry compared to its peer cities. The square foot of city centre retail space is far lower than Leicester, and was reduced during the reconstruction as it was felt demand wasn't there. Out of town retail, however, is very strong, with retail parks like Central Six, Arena and Warwickshire Retail Park offering the same sort of retailers that would be in the city centre rather than the 'big box' retailers you tend to find 'out of town'. From my point of view it shows that things have moved since the 1980s.

scrutiny....Back in the 50s there was no reason to go begging for a job..Anyone who was there at the time will tell you that employers would accept almost anyone. That was the time when bus companies were paying Indian immigrants to come over here and work for them.. Courtaulds were also desperately short of labour and like the bus companies were paying all costs for Indians to come and work for them. My employer at that time said to me "Anyone who has two of everything they should have two of can have a job here" There was certainly no reason to beg for a job at the factory gate....Norman

I can certainly agree that in the 50`s and 60`s you could walk out of a job on Friday and get another one on Monday. In the 50`s, the main industry in Coventry was car making but a big percentage was for export as `austerity` still ruled after the war. I guess the need for labour was, at least, due to the men of working age who died in the war. Ironically, the rapid decline in our car industry (which underpinned most of the other industry) was brought about by the import of Japanese cars (Nissan was called Datsun back then). I well remember a particular issue of the Sun with a picture of thousands of imported Datsuns on the dockside and the headline `Land of the rising Datsun`.

But that just outlines the danger of relying too heavily on a particular industry - we need to have a much broader spectrum of employment ranging from low skilled manual to manufacturing to service/office/retail to highly skilled research and development. It also shows why government protection of industries and subsidising can be very negative, costing a fortune but the industry becomes somewhat complacent and advancement and standards fall without great fear of competition.

Exactly right,AD, I recenly watched some Youtube vids by Jeremy Clarkson explaining how, when British Leyland was formed (from the major UK car makers), instead of integrating them and using common parts etc., they just carried on as individual companies competing against each other. No wonder the whole industry collapsed!

Yes but.............. Didn`t the car and much of British industry have far greater self inflicted inbuilt problems by then? Unions in league with apathetic Govt running rings round management. Pretty useless management "giving in" to the above Sick Men of Europe - true. If somebody happened to turn a vehicle out 85% serviceable it was a miracle - very little customer satisfaction,so limited sales

My problem with much of our education system is that it is staffed by academics who only know how to turn out academics. They are ground through the mill and come out almost a clone of those prevously put through the same mill.