'Wycombe had weakest economy in UK before recession' (From Bucks Free Press)

Seems we have had successive years of Tory mismanagement of our local economy

Seems they have spent far to long on aspirational projects and cost cutting 9even in the good times) rather than delivering new businesses that employ lots of local people.

Where's there a copy of this report, these figures do not match those from National statistics and to cite not building of a frigging stadium as being a blow to the jobs market is complete and utter fantasy.
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I work off of the M4 corridor and it is much busier than the M40, sometimes taking 50 minutes to get to Slough , it's quite simple why Companies seek to locate to Slough or Maidenhead, it's called Heathrow. Wycombe is a magnate for the smaller business not multinationals, to simply make land available will not bring large companies here and it won't solve the problem of jobs in the town. The Council now, is thankfully starting to look towards regeneration, encouraging businesses and good transport links with the likes of the sports centre development and the Hughenden quarter is a good start but again, one of the biggest challenges that this report appears to have not touched upon, is that the skills of locals doesn't match the needs of the businesses that the Council is trying to encourage here, in other words, resolve the issue regarding the skills market first.
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At last the Tories acknowledge what the Lib Dem opposition have been telling them for the last decade!

But they are still just talking about it instead of taking action.

We need an urgent task force to get into our schools,colleges and University to educate our youngsters on how they can start a new business and the help that is offered. Lets stop training them to be slaves to corporate monsters.

Too many unskilled or untrained people and not enough skilled or craft jobs of the right type . Same as in some areas of London , the Midlands , the far South West and the North.
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Not sustainable whatever the short-sighted stupid politicians say (whoever they are). They have created this mess we are in - not the British people.

Why oh why is there still harping back to the financially and economically sound decision to not proceed with spending £25M+ of ratepayers money on another stadium for London Wasps and Wycombe Wanderers?
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It's disappointing when a report of such importance includes elements that seem to be pased on unfounded opinions rather than actual facts.
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Cllr Colomb should read the WDC commissioned, Savill's 2010 report "Socio-Economic and Community Impact Assessment". It clearly describes BEST CASE (whereby Wanderers matchday attendance increased to 15,615 and London Wasps to 16,625) that the additional money brought into the area by away spectators would be £210,000 PER YEAR. I don't know what London Wasps's current attendence is - at the time of the report the figure used was 8,542 which mean that attendance would need to double. Wycombe Wanderers current attendance average this season is 4,157 - at the time of the report 5,378 was used. This means that in order to secure the extra income to the area Wycome Wanderer's attendance would need to TREBLE. There isn't a stadium project anywhere in the UK that shows anything like that sort of uplift. In fact, look at Doncaster, Darlington, Swansea and Colchester to see the adverse effect a stadium could have.
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Yes, the area needs investment and businesses need WDC's support BUT it should only be given to serious business propositions. That's why WDC looks at the Business Case of such projects to ensure that time, money and effort is spent on those projects where there is a sound, viable, case. For the stadium project it was clear that it didn't make sense to proceed. Perhaps the kiling of the project when "just" £500,000 had been spent should feature in the report as an example of what the Council should strive to avoid?

I suspect the job losses were related to paper and wood manufacturing related industries and the securitisation of toxic mortgages, etc.

What the Council needs to do is promote the area in growth industries like technology.

I expect they will have a similar policy for employment as they do towards affordable housing - just wait until it falls into their laps. All the hard miles performed by others.

This being the case, why are so many vehicles parked on the roads and verges on Cressex Industrial Estate, because there is no room in the car parks? Just where do these statistics come from?
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It's now 2012 in case no-one noticed the report dates.
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Correct Voyeur, local industry was over-concentrated in too few industries and the losses in the paper and furniture industry during that period were hugely significant, but it appears diversification may have occurred in spite of WDC's taking their eye off the ball - unless of course, it was kicked by ----- -----.

So too much attention was paid to The eden centre, what a surprise. Whilst the councillors were patting themselves on the back for a job well done the rest of Wycombe was going down the pan, tell me something I don't know.Anyone who knows the town could have, and did tell you that at the time. Now what have we got for it? A shopping centre that's never been fully opened and has a fair old turnover of shops, that's owned by investors who have no interest in the town, just their shareholders profits.Well done hwtc.

sai-diva wrote:
So too much attention was paid to The eden centre, what a surprise. Whilst the councillors were patting themselves on the back for a job well done the rest of Wycombe was going down the pan, tell me something I don't know.Anyone who knows the town could have, and did tell you that at the time. Now what have we got for it? A shopping centre that's never been fully opened and has a fair old turnover of shops, that's owned by investors who have no interest in the town, just their shareholders profits.Well done hwtc.

I hope you didn't mean High Wycombe Town Council by 'hwtc', sai-diva. Because I am afraid to inform you that Wycombe Town does not have a proper Town Council with any meaningful powers. High Wycombe is in fact 'unparished'
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All that's left a vestige from years and years ago within which self-important pompous undeserving councillors take it in turns to dress up in funny clothes and flaunt their egos in public and make vacuous speeches related to not much at all except for the occasional worthwhile charity (of their own choosing).
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Some of the WDC (ie Wycombe District Council) don't even live in the area - eg Reading or even further afield. So they don't relate to the Town at all - except at expense-claiming time and meeting so-called VIPs.
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Renaissance , Regeneration and Reformation are needed. Failing that - Revolution as in 'Arab Spring'.

All this plus they look like shutting down the hospital in stages and now the cctv is likely to be transferred to Slough.
Is there any hope for Wycombe?

Unfortunately Wycombe was a town that made it's money from inbreds making chairs. Now that the manufacturing has moved outside of town and a machine can do the work of a thousand bodgers, Wycombe has a vast number of unskilled simpletons.

These simpletons have bred and with the introduction of Jeremy Kyle and Sports Direct, the problem has got worse.

Anyone with half a brain had left. The only people coming are more thick inbreds or people who can't speak English - unable to realise they are making a massive mistake.

Perhaps a lack of local knowledge shown here.
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The so-called 'inbreds' were imported from far and wide from across the whole country (and even further) in the 19th century - a lot from London or widespread impoverished rural areas which had suffered unemployment , persecution and starvation during in the 1820s and 30s subsequent to being put out of work via the Industrial Revolution , avaricious landowners and new farming methods.
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It's all in history books if one cares to read them.

wayneo wrote:
Where's there a copy of this report, these figures do not match those from National statistics and to cite not building of a frigging stadium as being a blow to the jobs market is complete and utter fantasy.
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I work off of the M4 corridor and it is much busier than the M40, sometimes taking 50 minutes to get to Slough , it's quite simple why Companies seek to locate to Slough or Maidenhead, it's called Heathrow. Wycombe is a magnate for the smaller business not multinationals, to simply make land available will not bring large companies here and it won't solve the problem of jobs in the town. The Council now, is thankfully starting to look towards regeneration, encouraging businesses and good transport links with the likes of the sports centre development and the Hughenden quarter is a good start but again, one of the biggest challenges that this report appears to have not touched upon, is that the skills of locals doesn't match the needs of the businesses that the Council is trying to encourage here, in other words, resolve the issue regarding the skills market first.
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Actually this is the problem - Local work has been dismantled on the alter of the commuters needs. We have lost a vast amount of the manufacturing in the area ranging from the Furniture industry and Broom and Wades - Even the big building companies that once boosted the Marlow economy have all moved out.
To add insult to injury our Council now want to Knock down a good chunk of the Sports Center to Build Offices that nobody will use.
We need our councils to start building small start up units to help new companies grow, cut Company Rates to help employment and to campaign for the same resources that much of the North has had lavished on it and squandered for as long as any of us can remember.

J B Blackett wrote:
Perhaps a lack of local knowledge shown here.
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The so-called 'inbreds' were imported from far and wide from across the whole country (and even further) in the 19th century - a lot from London or widespread impoverished rural areas which had suffered unemployment , persecution and starvation during in the 1820s and 30s subsequent to being put out of work via the Industrial Revolution , avaricious landowners and new farming methods.
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It's all in history books if one cares to read them.

Actually this is the problem - Local work has been dismantled on the alter of the commuters needs. We have lost a vast amount of the manufacturing in the area ranging from the Furniture industry and Broom and Wades - Even the big building companies that once boosted the Marlow economy have all moved out.
To add insult to injury our Council now want to Knock down a good chunk of the Sports Center to Build Offices that nobody will use.
We need our councils to start building small start up units to help new companies grow, cut Company Rates to help employment and to campaign for the same resources that much of the North has had lavished on it and squandered for as long as any of us can remember.

Oh and for your information some of our families have been in the area for at least 900 years and counting

Obviously the indigenous people did not move out when the 'new' furniture and associate firms - the main employer of people in Wycombe moved in. I did not write that did I ?
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Even the Parker Knoll firm (originated in Germany lasted less than 100 years , Gomms ( Oxon and Bucks) only got going large scale in the 1950s and now operates from Glasgow. Ercol (Ercolini) moved to Princes Risborough in 2001 after about 70 years in Wycombe.
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At now point did I intend to demean the name of long-established local (or any other) families). Unlike like some above.
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As your remarks about employment , I'm afraid to say I am less sanguine than most in spite of what local / national politicians and other idiots say.
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There is unemployment worldwide in nearly every country. Some countries export their unemployment problems to other countries. But the main and growing problem is too many people on the surface of the Earth and not enough work for them. There is no longer enough work for the under-skilled or general worker / labourer
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What happens next is anyone's guess , but no politician has the answer at the moment. The danger is that some pedagogue and his/her mates will claim they have - then the biomass will start on its short journey towards the centrifuge. I do hope religion does not play a role either.
Rgds

J B Blackett wrote:
Obviously the indigenous people did not move out when the 'new' furniture and associate firms - the main employer of people in Wycombe moved in. I did not write that did I ?
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Even the Parker Knoll firm (originated in Germany lasted less than 100 years , Gomms ( Oxon and Bucks) only got going large scale in the 1950s and now operates from Glasgow. Ercol (Ercolini) moved to Princes Risborough in 2001 after about 70 years in Wycombe.
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At now point did I intend to demean the name of long-established local (or any other) families). Unlike like some above.
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As your remarks about employment , I'm afraid to say I am less sanguine than most in spite of what local / national politicians and other idiots say.
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There is unemployment worldwide in nearly every country. Some countries export their unemployment problems to other countries. But the main and growing problem is too many people on the surface of the Earth and not enough work for them. There is no longer enough work for the under-skilled or general worker / labourer
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What happens next is anyone's guess , but no politician has the answer at the moment. The danger is that some pedagogue and his/her mates will claim they have - then the biomass will start on its short journey towards the centrifuge. I do hope religion does not play a role either.
Rgds

Alternatively there is the Cambodian solution, where the intelligentsia were sent back to the land, mainly as fertiliser.
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FYI the furniture industry was also largely driven by strike breakers from Wales. Need one say more? Where do you originate from Marmite?

There is no work to be had , even on the land or anywhere.
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And even Marmite's origins were in Germany.

I've read this report now and it is a crock of ratsh!te. This is a fanciful creation by the BNU for a TFG that is comprised of the usual suspects who wanted the stadium built at all cost, If WDC are going to have a task & finish group, then the information that is provided should first of all be independent and secondly accurate. The headline figure of 18000 does not correspondond with the ONS figures and isn't a net decline anyway.
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http://neighbourhood
.statistics.gov.uk/H
TMLDocs/Local%20Prof
iles%20V5.0/Localpro
files.html

wayneo wrote:
I've read this report now and it is a crock of ratsh!te. This is a fanciful creation by the BNU for a TFG that is comprised of the usual suspects who wanted the stadium built at all cost, If WDC are going to have a task & finish group, then the information that is provided should first of all be independent and secondly accurate. The headline figure of 18000 does not correspondond with the ONS figures and isn't a net decline anyway.
!
http://neighbourhood

.statistics.gov.uk/H

TMLDocs/Local%20Prof

iles%20V5.0/Localpro

files.html

Must say I'm quite disturbed that the "analysis" that the report contains is based on questionable data (per Wayneo's observation) and lacks the rigour one would expect from a report upon which a series of recommendations have been identified for approval by the Council. The SWOT analysis is, at best, weak and one of the background reports is from 2004 - so is nearly a decade old!
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The report only took into account local jobs without consideration of how many people use the area to live but commute elsewhere (e.g. Oxford, Reading and, oh yes...LONDON) Functioning as a commuter belt removes one of the premises of the report that house prices are too high - compared to Central London the local property market is quite the contrary.
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There's an emphasis on the desire to attract large employers but more and more employment is now achieved through entrepreneurs, startups, etc. who are, by their nature, not large. A recently published report by Gartner identified that 75% of the S&P 500 in 2020 won't yet exist. Whilst that's talking about the US marketplace it's likely that the UK will follow - and so there'll be a proliferation of small startups providing employment opportunities. If these are nurtured they'll then turn into the larger enterprises.
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The report also fails to take into account the opportunities affording by technology change and how investment in infrastructure capability would attract potential investors. Nor does it take into account technology initiatives that may create furher unemployment in the area - the launch of the G-Cloud Cloudstore initiative this weekend may spell the beginning of the end for Council datacentres.