A startling downturn for Staffordshire

One of the things Staffordshire County Council does very well happens within what is called the Staffordshire Observatory. A Research Unit sitting within the Department for Development and Economic Regeneration, it brings together all the known economic data about Staffordshire to provide a holistic view.

The latest one makes very grim reading indeed and in many areas is worse here than the national picture is.

Nationally, the back end of last year saw over 200 businesses each day become insolvent whilst the type of residential mortgages deals available reduced by 89% and 64% of the remainder requires a 25% deposit up front. That in turn has seen mortgages nationally fall by well over half.

Because Staffordshire has a greater dependance on the construction industry than nationally (over 20% of the workforce is construction orientated here) this county is being even harder hit. Between January 2008 and January 2009 there was a 96.4% increase in the number of claimants for unemployment related benefits in Staffordshire. In the last year Staffordshire has seen a greater increase in claimants than any of the other strategic authories in the West Midlands Region.

And as you can see by the chart, in Staffordshire some local council areas are doing even worse with the downturn biting faster and harder.

John Taylor, the Labour Leader of the County Council, like his national counterpart in Westminster, has talked a lot about helping business and individuals during these difficult times. Outside central Government, the County Council has the largest resources to try and effect an upturn in the Staffordshire economy but whilst Whitehall are taking some action, much of it token and much of it misguided, the County don’t appear to have followed up the good words with actual action.

Next week I’m attending a committee which looks at how the County Council works with partners across the whole of Staffordshire and that includes work around the economic health of the county. It will be interesting to see how they answer questions on what has actually been done behind the good words of the last three months. We’ll see.

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