Memorandum submitted by Groundwork UK
SUMMARY
The green fiscal stimulus package is a much-needed
investment in helping the UK to navigate its way through a deep
recession. Whilst it creates some opportunities to develop the
green economy more could be done to restructure the economic base
to nurture genuinely sustainable local economic development. This
approach aims to achieve a sustainable economy by creating rewarding
work for those who need it most, contributing to well-being and
social justice.
The UK government has committed itself to radical
carbon reduction targets. It is also on a path that says work
and economic development are the keys to helping the poorest areas
of our country break out of a cycle of social and environmental
decline. We have a window of opportunity to connect these two
drivers by embarking on an ambitious programme of enterprise development
and job creation along genuinely sustainable lines.
Much of the debate around green skills so far
has centred on jobs in the "high tech" green industries.
We believe that there is significant demand for low to medium
skill green jobs which would both benefit the environment and
tackle unemployment and worklessness—particularly in deprived
communities. Groundwork currently operates programmes which train
and prepare participants for these kind of green jobs—contributing
to tackling climate change and workless targets in local areas.
We need a significant programme of vocational
education, skills training and enterprise development focused
on disadvantaged communities and the industry sectors that will
be needed if the UK is to develop a low carbon economy: household
recycling, community composting, loft insulation, land management,
local food production, local energy generation. The recently announced
Future Jobs Fund may go some way to achieving this. It is nonetheless
important that all aspects of public investment seek to maximise
the development of a truly green economy.
1. Introduction
Groundwork is one of the country's leading providers
of environmentally-focused employment schemes. We tackle worklessness
in deprived areas by helping people develop their confidence,
skills and experience in order to find work and to contribute
to the regeneration of their own neighbourhoods. Our programmes
are focused on those people who find it hardest to get work such
as those with low levels of skills, people claiming incapacity
benefit or ex-offenders. Many Groundwork Trusts run programmes
that pay local unemployed people a wage while they work on a wide
range of activities—from renovating run-down houses to running
recycling schemes—which also deliver environmental benefits
and contribute to genuinely sustainable development. Increasingly
these services are being developed into enterprises with the potential
to support local economic development.
Over the past year, we have:
— provided 59,000 weeks worth of training
and helped people gain 8,000 formal qualifications;
— created 2,900 jobs; and
— helped 2,300 people progress back into
education, training or employment or into formal voluntary work.
2. Whether the changes in public spending
intended to help tackle the recession will maximise employment
opportunities in environmental industries.
Groundwork welcomes the public spending commitments
to boost Britain's low carbon sectors and lay foundations for
green growth, supporting investment in energy and resource efficiency
and low carbon energy generation by business, public sector and
households over the next two years. For the employment opportunities
to be maximized it will be vital that this spending is aligned
with the Department for Work and Pension's proposals for employment
provision and the future skills strategies produced by the Department
for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
3. The economic and social benefits of planned
green investments and the extent to which the changes in spending
will contribute to sustainable development and environmental protection.
3.1 Recent research has shown that, overall,
energy efficiency measures (for domestic and non-domestic markets)
consistently delivered the best returns for investment, being
capable of delivering timely boosts to the economy, generating
opportunities in sectors with more slack, as well as lowering
carbon emissions. In addition, they also enhance energy security
and help tackle fuel poverty.[6]
It is important that support is provided to help people understand
how to derive maximum benefits from the energy efficiency measures
installed in their homes, and in Groundwork's experience this
is most effectively delivered on a face-to-face basis.
Green Doctor
Groundwork Leicester & Leicestershire developed
the Green Doctor project as an innovative way of tackling fuel
poverty in deprived wards by offering free visits to low income
households aimed at helping people improve energy and resource
efficiency and save money.
Over three years, the Green Doctors conducted
energy use audits of the properties they visited using the National
Energy Rating assessment, and provided tailored advice to householders
about their home energy use and environmental measures in the
home.
3.2 The Community Energy Saving Programme
(CESP) has the potential to significantly stimulate market demand
for energy efficiency products and services among consumers. This
is likely to generate a commensurate capacity requirement in the
industry. The Future Jobs Fund could present an opportunity to
simultaneously meet some of this demand, whilst also providing
much needed skills training and employment opportunities for young
people who are furthest removed from the labour market.
3.3 CESP also includes proposals for the
creation of home energy advisors and community energy advisors.
For these people, and these roles, to be effective—in terms
of achieving the required behaviour change to maximise the energy
efficiency and carbon saving benefits—community development
skills are as important as the technical knowledge. This proposal
highlights the importance of ensuring that all relevant public
spending seeks to maximise the development of the green economy.
The Greenhouse Initiative
Groundwork Creswell have created "the Greenhouse
Initiative" which restores vacant property ensuring that
the houses use a wide range of energy saving devices and renewable
energy measures. The improvements, which include insulation, solar
how water and a rain harvesting system, far exceed current building
regulations. They also tackle fuel poverty by lowering heating
bills. The initiative not only ensures more sustainable homes,
it also provides work for local people: the work to re-design
and rebuild properties provides long term unemployed people with
the skills and experience needed to re-enter the workplace.
3.4 As the Stern Review on the Economics
of Climate Change states: "Adaptation to climate change—that
is, taking steps to build resilience and minimise costs—is
essential. It is no longer possible to prevent the climate change
that will take place over the next two to three decades, but it
is still possible to protect our societies and economies from
its impacts to some extent".[7]
3.5 Urban areas are especially vulnerable
to the impacts of climate change, not least because this is where
people and property are located. They are more likely to experience
hotter temperatures due to the "urban heat island effect".
Roads and buildings store more heat than vegetation, which provides
evaporative cooling. Urban temperatures can therefore be several
degrees warmer than rural areas. The hottest zones are those with
the tallest buildings and the highest density of buildings without
green spaces. Such microclimates may intensify the effect of climate
change.
3.6 Impermeable built surfaces also convert
rainfall to run off at a much faster rate, and in greater volumes
than porous vegetated surfaces. This could be exacerbated by extreme
rainfall events with climate change, leading to problems with
flooding from overwhelmed drains. Creating new green infrastructure
in urban areas not only creates a natural cooling effect, it also
provides improved water management/flood alleviation and improved
air qualities. Adaptation strategies not only offer multiple benefits,
they also create new opportunities: in adapting to climate change
we can also make our towns and cities more attractive with consequent
economic benefits, create a better quality of life and promote
biodiversity.
3.7 This need to adapt to the impacts of
climate change, particularly through the creation of green infrastructure
also creates opportunities for the creation of new green jobs
and the development of green skills in areas such as land management
and horticulture.
Green Team
Groundwork Hertfordshire's "Green Team"
is a 16-week voluntary training scheme for unemployed young people
(aged 16-25). The teams receive training in outdoor environmental
work such as landscaping, planting, tree maintenance, coppicing,
path building and pond clearance and the course will give young
people the skills they need to get a first job in the environmental,
landscaping or construction industries. The training is designed
to suit the needs of young people leaving school with no qualifications.
Trainees are also supported to complete a national qualification—a
City & Guilds in Land Based Studies.
Michael, one of the first volunteers on the
Green Team explains the difference it made to him: "I volunteered
with Groundwork as part of their Green Team and realised that
landscaping was what I wanted to do....I felt included as part
of a team and there was a real family atmosphere. The time I spent
volunteering has definitely been a worthwhile experience and I've
been offered a job since taking part. I've been taught everything
I need to know about landscaping and have been given the chance
to hone my skills."
4. The nature of the jobs that might be created
in green industries as a result of the green fiscal stimulus.
4.1 As has already been recognised (in,
for example, the Houghton Review and the Future Jobs Fund) in
the current economic climate it is vital that those who are already
furthest removed from the labour market are not ignored and excluded
from taking up new job opportunities—and thus being left
to fall even further behind—because of a lack of skills
and experience.
4.2 There is a risk that the green fiscal
stimulus will focus job creation at the high-skills end of the
labour market. Whilst this is to be welcomed, it is vital that
it is not at the expense of the creation of much-needed jobs requiring
a lower level of skills. This is not a case of job creation for
its own sake; the need to create a truly low carbon economy and
to adapt to the impacts of climate change (many of which are already
"locked in") will necessitate the creation of a wide
range of jobs with a lower skills entry requirement, on a significant
scale. It is therefore important that the green fiscal stimulus
recognises and supports this need. The Heat and Energy Saving
Strategy, for example, includes the ambition of ensuring seven
million homes have had the opportunity of taking up a whole house
package of measure to improve home energy efficiency by 2020.
4.3 Green industries cover a wide spectrum
of employment, from renewable energy generation, to new low-carbon
technologies, to the creation and maintenance of green infrastructure,
and recycling. The Local Government Association has estimated
that there is the potential to create around 20,000 new jobs in
home energy efficiency, in addition to the jobs required to manage
the risks associated with climate change.[8]
4.4 Groundwork already runs programmes which
train people in "green skills". We have identified the
following areas as having significant potential for the creation
of low skill green jobs:
— Energy Efficiency Advice for home owners
and SMEs
Groundwork currently employs a small network
of "Green Doctors"—local people trained to provide
a full in-home MOT aimed at reducing domestic energy consumption,
reducing fuel poverty and promoting positive environmental behaviour.
Green Doctors not only diagnose and advise but
also deliver on-the-spot treatment, fitting a range of measures
from top-up loft insulation to PowerDown devices, provided free
to low-income households.
— Retrofitting our homes and public buildings
The UK faces enormous challenges if it is to
deliver legally binding carbon reduction targets. One of the most
significant is the need to retrofit millions of existing buildings,
homes and urban landscapes to maximise their energy efficiency
and other climate change mitigation and adaptation benefits.
Temporary jobs—or intermediate labour
markets—have huge potential to help meet this challenge
over the next few years.
Groundwork is currently running employment programmes
that deliver a range of retrofitting activity such as:
— refurbishing void social housing properties
to eco-home standard;
— installing smart meters in homes;
— installing sustainable urban drainage
systems; and
— managing and improving green spaces to
maximise climate change benefits.
— Greening our cities—mitigating
and adapting our urban areas against the impact of climate change
There will be an increasing need and demand
for us to find ways to protect urban areas against the impact
of climate change— the need to "green" our cities.
Much of this work will need landscaping and land- based jobs and
therefore skills and job creation programmes will be needed that
can meet this demand.
Land Apprentice Scheme—Groundwork Black Country
Groundwork has developed a Land Apprentice programme
to enable local unemployed people to gain skills and experience
within the environmental sector. Land Apprentice teams help deliver
many projects under the guidance of experienced contracts manager
and site supervisors.
The programme employs local people giving an
employment track record on real projects and job-related training—as
well as improving the image and environment of the Black Country.
May 2009
6 A Bowen, et al "An Outline of the Case for a
Green Stimulus": http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/granthamInstitute/publications/An%20outline%20of%20the%20case%20for%20a%20
'green'%20stimulus.pdf (viewed 7/5/09). Back
7
Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change, summary of conclusions
page 2: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/Summary_of_Conclusions.pdf
(viewed 14/5/09). Back
8
LGA "Creating green jobs: Developing local low-carbon economies"
http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/aio/1509491 (viewed 7/5/09). Back
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