East Lancashire: Burnley, Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn, Pendle and Rossendale

Pathfinder: Elevate East Lancashire

Introduction

Elevate East Lancashire covers a large part of the urban areas within the five boroughs of Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle and Rossendale. Most of the interventions are taking place in the towns of Blackburn, Darwen, Burnley, Accrington (Hyndburn) and Nelson (Pendle).

The five Elevate authorities contain approximately 190,000 dwellings, with 85,000 in pathfinder areas. Forty-five per cent of all homes (85,000) are terraced - although the proportion rises to over 70 per cent in the pathfinder intervention areas.

The population has recently been broadly static, following a period of decline. In the last few years, the populations of Hyndburn and Blackburn have risen by around three per cent, while that of Burnley has declined by a similar amount.

House prices for the pathfinder as a whole have doubled in the last two to three years although they are still very low by regional or national standards.

Map of East Lancashire and the North West of England

Map of East Lancashire and the North West of England

Case study

Constructing The Future

The Elevate programme will have a huge impact on the construction industry in East Lancashire with increased demand for skilled local labour, qualified contractors and suppliers. To ensure that these demands are met to the benefit of local residents and businesses, the Constructing The Future project was launched by Elevate in 2003. Its aims are to:

increase the supply of apprentices and qualified people to work within the East Lancashire construction industry, specifically in the housing market renewal funded projects supply chain
grow the construction sector in East Lancashire and improve its ability to compete regionally and nationally for Elevate-funded contracts
to promote economic inclusion within the construction industry, to include increased local employment

Achievements

52 adults enrolled on National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) Level 2 in construction
13 apprentices employed
£250,000 funding attracted from the European Social Fund
seven companies accredited to ISO 14001 (International Standard for environment, management systems and standards)
60 contractors prepared to compete in Elevate procurement process
80 suppliers attended events to participate in Elevate supply chain
database of 1500 local companies prepared