Outline Planning Application

June 2020

OUTLINE COMMUNITY EMPLOYMENT PLAN

OxfordshireGarden Village will be a place that

celebrates nature, allowing wildlife, plants and people to co-exist and thrive; a sanctuary of modern living

within a rural West Oxfordshire setting.

Application Documents and DrawingsDocument Name Reference Number

Outline Planning Application Guide N/A

Application Form and Certificates N/A

Location Plan (OGV-DWG-APPR-LP-01)

Planning Application Boundary (OGV-DWG-APPR-PAB-01)

Building Demolition Plan (OGV-DWG-APPR-BDP-01)

A40 Western Access drawing (OGV-DWG-APPR-A40A-01)

Lower Road Northern Site Access drawing (OGV-DWG-APPR-LRNA-01)

Lower Road Site Access drawing (OGV-DWG-APPR-LRA-01)

Cuckoo Lane Residential Access drawing (OGV-DWG-APPR-CLRA-01)

Parameter Plans Booklet (OGV-DOC-APPR-PP-01)

Parameter Plan 1: Land Use (OGV-DWG-APPR-PP1-01)

Parameter Plan 2: Landscape (OGV-DWG-APPR-PP2-01)

Parameter Plan 3: Movement and Access (OGV-DWG-APPR-PP3-01)

Parameter Plan 4: Building Heights (OGV-DWG-APPR-PP4-01)

Development Specification and Framework (OGV-DOC-APPR-DSF-01)

Site-wide Design Code (OGV-DOC-APPR-SWDC-01)

Illustrative Masterplan (OGV-DWG-ILL-IMP-01)

Blue Line Plan (OGV-DWG-INF-BLP-01)

Planning Statement (OGV-DOC-INF-PS-01)

Design and Access Statement (OGV-DOC-INF-DAS-01)

Transport Assessment (OGV-DOC-INF-TA-01)

Affordable Housing Statement (OGV-DOC-INF-AHS-01)

Arboricultural Impact Assessment (OGV-DOC-INF-AIA-01)

Biodiversity Mitigation, Monitoring and Management Framework (OGV-DOC-INF-BMMMF-01)

Draft Heads of Terms for Section 106 Agreement (OGV-DOC-INF-DHOT-01)

Environmental Statement Non-Technical Summary (OGV-DOC-INF-ESNTS-01)

Environmental Statement - Volume 1 - Main Report (OGV-DOC-INF-ES-01)

Environmental Statement - Volume 2 - Appendices (OGV-DOC-INF-ESAPP-01)

Flood Risk Assessment (OGV-DOC-INF-FRA-01)

Framework Travel Plan (OGV-DOC-INF-FTP-01)

Health Impact Assessment (OGV-DOC-INF-HIA-01)

Infrastructure Delivery Plan (OGV-DOC-INF-IDP-01)

Outline Community Employment Plan (OGV-DOC-INF-OCEP-01)

Outline Energy Strategy (OGV-DOC-INF-ENER-01)

Outline Stewardship and Management Plan (OGV-DOC-INF-OSMP-01)

Phase 1 Ground Condition Assessment (OGV-DOC-INF-P1GCA-01)

Phase 2 Ground Condition Assessment (OGV-DOC-INF-P2GCA-01)

Property Market Assessment and Economic Outlook (OGV-DOC-INF-EMP-01)

Retail Assessment (OGV-DOC-INF-RA-01)

Statement of Community Involvement (OGV-DOC-INF-SCI-01)

Surface Water Management Strategy (OGV-DOC-INF-SWMS-01)

Sustainability Strategy (OGV-DOC-INF-SUS-01)

Topographical Survey (OGV-DWG-INF-TOP-01)

Utilities Appraisal Report (OGV-DOC-INF-UTI-01)

Waste Strategy (OGV-DOC-INF-WAS-01)

Outline Community Employment Plan Introduction A Community Employment Plan (CEP), also known as an Employment and Skills Plan, provides opportunities for people to access skills and training associated with large development sites such as the Oxfordshire Garden Village (OGV). Whilst a CEP can support a number of ambitions and programmes its key function is to help support the development of specialist and flexible skills at all levels and across a number of key sectors; supporting both employment and business growth and helping individuals access inclusive and fulfilling jobs. Through a variety of indicators and initiatives, a CEP aims to increase local individual’s skill levels, increasing their employability and helping those currently marginalised from the workforce to move closer to the labour market. This not only improves individual well-being and chances for success, but it is good for the economic prosperity of the locality and Oxfordshire as it helps provide employers with a skilled workforce.

The CEP Evidence Paper (2017)1 states “The Oxfordshire Skills Board (now Advisory Panel) initiated the original CEP concept on behalf of OxLEP with both organisations keen to maximise the opportunity for those most marginalised from the workforce”. It describes a CEP as follows:

“CEP’s are employer-led initiatives which can form part of S106 planning obligations for significant developments. There are two key areas of employment, skills and training for which S106 planning obligations will be sought. The first is the construction phase for all large developments, the second at the end user phase of large commercial developments. The measures will seek to mitigate the impacts of development through ensuring that local people can better access job opportunities arising from development”.

The CEP evidence paper continues to suggest that: “The developers will be required to prepare and implement, with local authorities and skills providers, a Community Employment Plan (CEP) that will seek to mitigate the impacts of development through ensuring that local people can better access the training (including apprenticeships) and job opportunities arising from the development. CEP’s should relate to outcomes from both the construction and the end user phase, where appropriate”.

OxLEP outline2 they have CEPs in place at a number of existing locations:

− Barton Park (Oxford City) where Grosvenor are part of the BOLLOP joint venture with Oxford City;

− North West Bicester (Cherwell);

− Westgate Centre Oxford (Oxford City);

− Botley West Way redevelopment (Vale of White Horse); and

− Crab Hill (now Kingsgrove) – Wantage (Vale of White Horse).

The Oxfordshire Local Industrial Strategy (July 2019)3 outlines Oxfordshire has a highly skilled workforce, with 51 per cent of the working age population educated to degree level or above. The county’s unemployment rate is over 50 per cent lower than the UK average, at 1.3 per cent compared to 2.7 per cent nationally. However, the county has pockets of significant deprivation and wage disparity.

Oxfordshire Insight (October 2019)4 outlines that according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) 2019, Oxfordshire is the 10th least deprived of 151 upper-tier local authorities in England. However, one ward is within the 10% most deprived, with a further 16 areas are among the 20% most deprived nationally. This distribution for West Oxfordshire is shown in Figure 1. A significant element of measuring IMD includes

1 Available at: http://mycouncil.oxford.gov.uk/documents/s37200/Community%20Employment%20Plans.pdf

2 Available at: https://www.oxfordshirelep.com/skills/our-programmes/community-employment-plans

3 Available at https://www.oxfordshirelep.com/sites/default/files/uploads/Oxfordshire-SINGLE-PAGE_1.pdf

4Available at: https://insight.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/system/files/documents/20191004_bitesize_IMD2019overview.pdf

consideration of Employment Deprivation and Education, Skills and Training Deprivation (22.5 and 13.5% of the total respectively) and can potentially be addressed through a CEP.

Figure 1. IMD in West Oxfordshire (2019) Source: Hatch Regeneris

Whilst the high employment rate within Oxfordshire and West Oxfordshire is positive, this headline potentially hides a number of issues, as outlined in a paper to the Oxford Growth Board5. This paper states that the high levels of employment mean “those claiming benefits are more likely to have greater difficulties in accessing training and work, meaning additional support is needed to help them move closer to the labour market. Similarly, there are a significant number of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimants who are a long way from the labour market. Of our (Oxfordshire’s) c15,000 ESA claimants approximately a third will never work for a variety of reasons, including health and care responsibilities. The remaining 10,000 could potentially work with appropriate levels of (often intensive) support and training; CEP’s provide a mechanism to help bring this cohort closer to economic inclusion”.

In October 2019 Hatch Regeneris produced the Oxfordshire LEP Skills Advisory Panel Skills and Labour Market Research report6, which outlined the following challenges being experienced by Oxfordshire:

Figure 2. Extract from Hatch Regeneris report (October 2019)

The report also outlined that “Evidence from employers suggests that the current provision of training is not necessarily meeting the skills needs of Oxfordshire’s workforce. Specialist skills are most cited as the largest

5 Available at: http://mycouncil.oxford.gov.uk/documents/s37200/Community%20Employment%20Plans.pdf 6 Available at: https://www.oxfordshirelep.com/sites/default/files/uploads/%21OxLEP%20SAP%20Final%20Report%2001-11-19%20-%20EU%20logo.pdf

skills gaps as well as more softer skills. Those recruiting elementary and skilled trades (e.g. construction workers) report some of the largest skills gaps. There is a need to ensure that training providers and the courses that are offered better reflect the needs of local employers and that they bridge the skills gaps that exist in the workforce to support the growth of local businesses. Employers are showing a willingness to invest in employee skills, at least, if not better than, nationally”.

A Community Employment Plan is an important mechanism to alleviate these challenges.

CEP policy context: The following references outline the policy context within West Oxfordshire which outline the benefits and requirement to submit a CEP for large scale development such as OGV.

West Oxfordshire Local Plan 20317

Paragraph 6.21:

“The skill base of the workforce is good but there is a shortage of workers with technical skills across the area and employers seek improved ‘work readiness’ from school leavers. The Council will therefore seek to encourage measures designed to improve skills such as the use of community employment plans (CEPs) whereby larger developments (typically 1,000 or more homes and/or 4,000 sqm of floorspace) will be encouraged to implement training initiatives to help up-skill the local workforce e.g. use of apprenticeships. CEP’s are already in place at the Westgate Centre re-development in Oxford City, as well as in Cherwell at the NW Bicester Eco-town site”.

Oxfordshire Cotswolds Garden Village Area Action Plan (AAP) – Preferred Options (July 2019)8

Preferred Policy Approach 24 – Employment Skills and Training:

“Key stakeholders including OxLEP to be involved in the preparation of the CEP with progress and outputs to be measured, monitored and shared with the District Council on a regular basis”.

Paragraph 9.43:

“To achieve this, the Council is proposing that development of the garden village must be supported by the use of a Community Employment Plan (CEP). This is an employer led initiative which can enable local residents to receive the training and skills needed to access new job-opportunities

Evidence base and guidance In addition to the above planning policy and supporting text references, there are a number of evidence base documents which should be considered when drafting a CEP. Within West Oxfordshire, the West Oxfordshire Economic Snapshot (2015)9 and the Employment study (2019)10 submitted to support the AAP will be relevant considerations, although the key strategies have been produced by the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP), who will be a key stakeholder in any CEP for OGV.

OxLEP set out its overarching economic vision for Oxfordshire to 2020 within an updated Strategic Economic Plan (SEP)11 in 2016, which will be achieved through four key priority areas of ‘People’, ‘Place’, ‘Enterprise’ and ‘Connectivity’. This refreshed version of the SEP for Oxfordshire takes into account evidence that has become available since the first SEP was produced in 2014, including new strategies relating to skills, innovation, culture and heritage, and natural resources and the environment. The key ‘People’ priorities to 2020 will be to:

7 Available at: https://www.westoxon.gov.uk/media/1936509/Local-Plan-BOOK-WEB.pdf 8 Available at: https://www.westoxon.gov.uk/media/2036815/Garden-Village-APP-Preferred-Option-Paper-July-2019.pdf 9 Available at: https://www.westoxon.gov.uk/media/1023551/West-Oxfordshire-Economic-Snapshot-Jan-2015.pdf 10 Available at: https://www.westoxon.gov.uk/media/1996634/16444-OCGV-Employment-Study-Final-Report-070419.PDF 11 Available at: https://www.oxfordshirelep.com/sites/default/files/uploads/Oxfordshire%20SEP.pdf

Education and skills

• ensuring that skills provision is aligned more effectively with the needs of employers

• understanding – and responding to – the aspirations and frustrations of young people as they seek to build their lives and their careers in Oxfordshire, by creating a ‘skills continuum’ to support them through their learning journey

• increasing STEM skills among Oxfordshire’s young people

• increasing the number of apprenticeship opportunities

Reducing exclusion

• addressing exclusion from the labour market, by up-skilling and other measures to help young people and adults marginalised or disadvantaged from work

The two key actions for achieving these aims are to ‘Implement the Oxfordshire Skills Strategy’ and to ‘Implement the European Social Fund programme and the Community Employment Plan agenda’.

The Oxfordshire Skills Strategy12 opens with “The Oxfordshire Skills Board recognises that people are our most valuable resource in terms of economic growth; they are versatile, adaptable, generally highly skilled and in great demand by our vibrant and virtual full employment economy”. The aim of the strategy is to provide an overview of the high-level interventions required to support the Oxfordshire economy and which are likely to have greatest impact in terms of addressing skills deficits and supporting growth. It is envisaged the strategy will:

• Provide a clear direction of travel to skills commissioners, provider networks and employers

• Influence local skills provision and curriculum design

• Become a vital tool in setting priorities, allocating resources and potential funding.

Key targets and mechanisms The Oxfordshire Skills Advisory Panel outline that they have “been at the forefront of championing and delivering Community Employment Plans (CEPs) on major developments. CEPs provide the opportunity to work closely with developers to maximise local training and skills outcomes arising from major developments within a planned and structured way”.

The Preferred Options AAP suggests that “CEP’s are likely to include:

• Apprenticeships;

• Employment / training initiatives for all ages, including both work tasters and work experience placements;

• Traineeships for younger people, including those who are not in employment, education or training (NEETS);

• Best endeavours to maximise local labour, including pre-employment training;

• Local procurement agreement – potential for local businesses to be included in tender lists;

• Support for local skills and training events ie. Careers fest, National Apprenticeship week;

• School, College and University engagement initiatives such as site visits, school visits and project support”

12 Available at: https://www.oxfordshirelep.com/sites/default/files/uploads/OxLEP%20Skills%20Strategy.pdf

OxLEP guidance (with a template provided in Appendix 1) also suggests the document could cover the below at construction stage:

• Local labour, supply chain & procurement

• Engaging with Education

• Youth & apprenticeships

• Disadvantaged & Communities

• Partnership support

Consultation responses to the AAP Issues Paper13 also suggested that “Developers should work with local schools on this initiative”. The final scope of the CEP will be agreed with a number of partners, including the local authority, OxLEP, the developer, contractors and key employers and providers as appropriate for different stages of the development.

Although we are currently at the outline planning stage, we have begun to engage with District officers, OxLEP and the Skills Advisory Panel on the emerging CEP process. The CEP for OGV will need to respond to the bespoke needs of West Oxfordshire and OGV’s surrounding context, as well as evolving to consider national best practise. Whilst not currently considered within a publicly available CEP, the Kingsgrove CEP Steering group are currently responding to the Department for Work and Pension’s initiative on Disability Confidence14, both as an employer initiative and as a consideration in supply chains, to help engage with those most marginalised back into the work force.

The contact also advised that the future CEP, to be agreed with a number of stakeholders, should be flexible to allow it to be responsive to the county’s developing skills context as the development is built out and lived in. This will also allow the CEP to develop in line with and respond to the community at OGV and their developing needs and opportunities. Key to the future success of the CEP will also be the identified lead, support and wider engagement with the CEP, with lessons learned from other projects such as Barton Park that the decision to include specialist resources, part funded by the S106, really enhanced its utility.

Grosvenor supply chain charter Alongside the publication of its new sustainability goals in May 2019, Grosvenor Britain & Ireland also launched a Supply Chain Charter15, which commits the business and its suppliers to higher environmental and ethical standards. This Charter outlines that Grosvenor “will work closely with our supply chain to deliver lasting environmental, commercial and social benefits, while promoting the values of respect, trust and integrity”.

In relation to community employment and as part of Grosvenor’s ambition to deliver “Inclusive & equitable opportunities for employment” for the supply chain, the charter includes a standard requirement to “Measure and continuously improve levels of local employment, local procurement and employees through formal education programmes (e.g. apprenticeships, higher education, graduate trainees), with advanced expectations for a “focus on employing workers from disadvantaged circumstances (such as long-term unemployed, disabled, ex-offenders and service veterans) and report on the results” back to Grosvenor.

Outline Planning Applications and the CEP condition The CEP evidence paper, approved by the Growth Board in 2017, included the below on Community Employment Plans:

“OxLEP continue its work with each Local Planning Authority to facilitate the implementation of CEP policies and to request CEP’s as a condition on development sites which meet the proposed threshold…It is recommended that CEP’s are focused on the sites with 1,000 or more houses and/or 4,000 square metres (gross) of floor space. There are currently 34 proposed sites in Oxfordshire where this suggested threshold might apply”.16

13 Available at: https://www.westoxon.gov.uk/media/1923576/Oxfordshire-Cotswolds-Garden-Village-AAP-CONSULTATION-REPORT_Final-Nov18.pdf 14 Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/disability-confident-campaign 15 Available at: https://grosvenor.com/Grosvenor/files/75/751ae972-b299-4d9a-bb70-7b61c00aa7eb.pdf 16 Available at: http://mycouncil.oxford.gov.uk/documents/s37200/Community%20Employment%20Plans.pdf

Through the pre-application process and as OGV will exceed these suggested thresholds, a Condition on the outline planning application is anticipated to provide a Community Employment Plan for OGV, building on the approach and principles outlined within this document with defined (and binding) targets against a series of indicators, bespoke to the stage of development and agreed with key stakeholders.

As indicated above, this is the approach that has been taken to CEPs elsewhere, such as the Barton Park development condition below:

Barton Park (13/01383/OUT) Condition 37: “Training and Employment Strategy.

Prior to the commencement of the development, (except for enabling infrastructure works), a scheme to promote local training and employment as part of the implementation and operation of the development shall be submitted to and agreed in writing by the local planning authority. The scheme as approved shall be implemented and monitored in accordance with details which shall also have been submitted and agreed in writing by the local planning authority prior to the commencement of the development.”

Next steps: The scope of an individual Community Employment Plan will be developed in partnership with developers, (both house builders and commercial developers) local authorities and skills providers and agreed with the key stakeholders, including the district and OxLEP, and will also likely include the key employers which are part of the dedicated employment area. This will then be submitted as a public document for discharge of this condition, which may prevent certain stages of the development from continuing beyond a certain point until this is approved.

Submitting a CEP as a condition will allow the detail to be agreed with delivery partners, house builders and commercial developers, contractors and key employers when they are identified at subsequent stages. However, other supporting documents submitted to support this outline planning application, such as the Health Impact Assessment, Property Market Assessment and Economic Outlook report and the Socio-economic chapter of the Environmental Statement, will outline some of the recommended mitigation and potential benefits associated with the development of OGV. This approach will allow a commitment to be made by the providers directly, cognisant of the local context and ensuring reaching but deliverable targets. Consideration of the funding required to deliver the CEP will be discussed with relevant partners and authorities during determination and could form part of the S106 agreement.

Sarah Beal, 6th July 2017

Appendix 3: Construction Phase Community Employment Plan Template

A Community Employment Plan has been developed by (the developer) with support from….

The plan below sets out the construction phase Community Employment Plan and outcomes required as detailed by condition x of the development site outline planning permission (reference x)

Outputs from the plan will be measured and monitored as part of an on-going dialogue from monthly meetings with a variety of key external and internal stakeholders. All progress will be shared regularly with the Local Planning Authority. Stakeholders participating in the Community Employment Plan include:

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Appendix 1: OxLEP CEP template

Growth Board Executive 26th July 2017Agenda item 7Contact: Sarah Beal; Economic Development Coordinator, OxLEPTelephone: 03452 411 196Mobile: 07880 042 659Email: sarah.beal@oxfordshirelep.com

Sarah Beal, 6th July 2017

Action Activity Timescale Target/outputs Stretch target Responsible person DefinitionLocal employment and training clauses including use of local apprenticeships and traineeships built into procurement contracts

Maximise local procurement through ensuring main and sub-contractors source locally where practical

Hold a minimum of x “meet the buyer” events aimed at supporting local supply chain opportunities.

Meet the Buyer’ events are run by the construction partner to explain the project, the opportunities and the procurement process to local suppliers

Supporting employment for young people

Young people aged between 18-25 when they start on site

Supporting local employment Oxfordshire postcodes: http://www.postcodearea.co.uk/postaltowns/oxford/

Local labour, supply chain & procurement

Supporting Social Enterprises in supply chain

Social Enterprise trade to tackle social problems, improve communities, people’s life chances, or the environment

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Growth Board Executive 26th July 2017Agenda item 7Contact: Sarah Beal; Economic Development Coordinator, OxLEPTelephone: 03452 411 196Mobile: 07880 042 659Email: sarah.beal@oxfordshirelep.com

Sarah Beal, 6th July 2017

Support Oxfordshire careers events and National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) annually during the course of the development

Careers event; a not for profit event that supports education and employment outcomes for young people

Work with and support schools county wide to promote and introduce pupil and those that advise pupils of the range of skills and careers available in the construction industry

Provide site tours to schools, colleges, universities and those organisations up skilling individuals

Support University graduate research projects

Engaging with Education

Develop a series of creative interventions that advise parents of the range of skills and careers available in the construction industry

Youth & apprenticeships

Support apprenticeships by: embedding use of local

apprentices in supply chain procurement

ensuring the construction phase supports x apprenticeships during construction

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Growth Board Executive 26th July 2017Agenda item 7Contact: Sarah Beal; Economic Development Coordinator, OxLEPTelephone: 03452 411 196Mobile: 07880 042 659Email: sarah.beal@oxfordshirelep.com

Sarah Beal, 6th July 2017

Support training and work experience for young people by: Providing a strategy that

delivers –employment training and work experience/placements places for young people, matched to their areas of interest and aspirations, where they engage in purposeful work related learning activities rather than observation.

Embedding these opportunities in supply chain

Disadvantaged & Communities

Support a series of sector based work academies for those aged 18 or above (8 participants at each) over the life of the development aimed at creating opportunities for those most marginalised from the workplace

A sector-based work academy can last up to six weeks and has three key components:

Pre-employment training relevant to the needs of your business and sector.

Up to one week work experience placement – of great benefit to both the individual and a business

A guaranteed job interviewhttps://www.gov.uk/government/up-loads/system/up-loads/attacchment_data/file-144199/sbwa-employer-guide.pdf

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Growth Board Executive 26th July 2017Agenda item 7Contact: Sarah Beal; Economic Development Coordinator, OxLEPTelephone: 03452 411 196Mobile: 07880 042 659Email: sarah.beal@oxfordshirelep.com

Sarah Beal, 6th July 2017

Supporting local charities Local charity means a charity with an Oxfordshire registered office address and whose beneficiaries are primarily Oxfordshire residents

Promoting local volunteering

Partnership support

Developer to: nominate a single point of

contact for CommunityEmployment Planconstruction phase,activity and monitoring

ensure all reasonablemonitoring requests areactioned in a timelymanner

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